Green Christmas
by Shikotei
Summary: A group of excavators found the town Sheranian. They dug too far and unleashed a skeleton army. The area is sealed by holy ground, but something more evil stirred the area... something that would ruin Christmas if not stopped in time.
1. Prologue

It was a cold winter's day in early December. I remember it well. It was the day the team of archeologists found the base of an old castle near Perion, in the dry North. Once the Victorian press found out, the whole island knew about it and wanted to go visit. The archeologists excavated more and more ruins and people helped them. Soon after, a small town was found and the team of archeologists named the town 'Sheranian' after the magician who is said to have once lived there: Ergoth Sheranian.

According to the runic markings on a particular portal shaped gate, Ergoth was banned from life and bound in his tomb, there to stay until the world would decay.

His tomb was located deep beneath the ground and was guarded by two huge stone lions, and two stone knights. Both the lions and the knights were imbued with powerful magic to restrain Ergoth from waking and keep passengers away from the tomb.

But the people ignored this and kept revealing more of Sheranian's ruins and houses, until something that was supposed to stay hidden was found and it was too late. The graves of the people who lived there so long ago were all empty one day and the archeologists all but one gone without a trace. The only one who was found, was found dead at the runic portal.

The township of Perion, closest to the site, immediately sent an investigation party. They all returned, pale of fear and anxiety.

When the Chief of Perion, Dances with Balrogs, asked what they had seen, they all said the same answer: "Hordes of living skeletons! Everywhere!"

When the news spread across the island and reached Grendell's wise ears in the Eastern forest, he converted a circle of ground around the entire excavation site into holy ground. The skeletal army could not pass and the area within the circle was declared unsafe, and the crisis was solved... or so they thought.


	2. Fishy

"Hey man," the priest in white garments said, "I'm running low on mana potions and my pool isn't that big anymore either. Let's go back to the Aquarium, 'kay?"

"Sure sure, just lemme finish these last Gobi fishies." the crusader responded, while taking down a large pink eel with a powerful slash. He wielded his Devil's Sunrise with ease and within no time, he and the priest left the deep sea and headed up the cave again and into the Aquarium.

The two walked through a wall of water and entered the big shell into the dry Aquarium Hall. They walked up the stairs and entered the store area in the core of the shell.

"Fury, I dunno why you like training over there, but I've been electrocuted enough times for today." growled the priest while he paid Oannes, the shop owner, for the new potions. Fury looked surprised at his friend.

"Oh come on!" he said, "Those fishies aren't as bad as those Bone Fish you're usually at! You know I don't like boney monsters.."

After putting his potions in his bag, the priest walked to the place Fury sat. Fury had stood up and was now looking for food to buy from Oannes. Still mad at the Gobi that shocked him, the priest said:

"At least _they're_ sensitive to my healing abilities." He sat down and waited for Fury to finish his purchase.

"True true," he replied. "Here's the money, sir" and gave Oannes the proper amount of mesos to fit the bill.

"Anyway," continued the priest as the two friends walked out the watery barrier into the open ocean again, "I promised Hellz I'd help his team out at the Vic dungeon. You know what he's like when it comes to promises."

"Oh.." said Fury, defeated by that argument. Not knowing what to do next he mumbled "So.. this ends our party?"

The priest looked at his friend and slowly said "Yeah, sorry mate. By the way, don't you need a new armor soon? That blue Battle Road is looking quite bad now."

Fury looked down at his armor and turned and twisted about to check out the back too. The more he looked, the sadder he looked and agreed.

"Iucounu, can't you lend me some mesos to let me buy a new armor? I'm not as rich as I used to be since I got this baby here." he said and looked proudly at his shining weapon.

"Dark Rituals aren't exactly cheap either..." said Iucounu.

Both buddies looked at each other's faces. Then both burst out in laughs.

"We haven't changed in all these years, have we?"

"Good one mate!"

"Well then," said the crusader while sheathing his sword, "I'll be off to El Nath. Huntin' Lycans for a BS."

The priest didn't quite understand and tilted his head while asking "BS?"

"Ohhh! Yeah, Blue Screamer. Yeah. You sold your previous one to buy your Sunrise right?"

"I confess. Thirty-five _million_ mesos for that last one, hehe." Fury's smile went from ear to ear.

"_Thirty-five_?! And you're beggin' _me_ for mesos now? You really haven't changed at all, haha!" Both the priest and the crusader laughed again.

"Well, good luck with the hunt, Fury!" Iucounu waved goodbye and half teleporting and walking he went towards the base of the tower that leads to the sky land Orbis.

"Good luck to you too, man." Fury said to himself.

He searched his bag for a magical red whip for its magic speeding ability, picked out a golden round Kalkan shield and sped off after his friend.

He knew, that by the time he'd arrive at the base of the tower, Iucounu would've long since used the Teleport Rock and be on his way to the Orbis Station to take the boat flight to Victoria.

Fury, however, would leave the tower after going from Basement Two to the first floor. Outside was, as always in El Nath, freezing cold and the crusader quickly ran towards the nearby town to warm up a bit, before setting out to the far east.

The snow and ice made the short run a slippery one, but Fury was prepared for it and enjoyed sliding to the market area. What he saw there wasn't all that ordinary.

A whole crowd of people were shouting and there was a special message on the board. It said that "there hasn't been snowfall in the past week."

"No new snow in the _past week_?!" surprised Fury said to himself. His expression turned serious.

"That's hard to believe, since there have never been two snowless days in a row since.. since people found this place!" he said, thinking out loud.

"Something is fishy here. And it ain't the Gobies. I guess the Lycans will have to wait."


	3. Rooney's Problem

A young lad arrived per express boat from Maple Island to Lith Harbor. He stepped out, tripped over the threshold and painfully hit the floor, face first.

"AAAHH!" he shouted before the loud, hollow thud.

"OUCH!"

As he stood up again and wiggled his nose, Teo walked at him.

"Are you alright, lad?" he said worriedly.

"Yeah.. I'm fine." said the boy, thanking Teo for the worry.

"Where ya headin'?" asked the man.

"Ellinia," was the answer, "I want to become a spearman."

The bearded man looked strange at the you one.

"Ya got a name, lad?" he asked.

"Babsticles, sir." said Babsticles, "but everyone calls me Babs for short."

Teo nodded and said "Babs it is then. Lad, I gotta tell ya somethin'."

Babsticles paid attention real close.

"Perion.. is the place fer spearmen. And Ellinia is fer mages 'n stuff." sighed Teo and laid a hand on Babsticles' shoulder.

"Oh maaaan!" yelled Babs. "I screwed up _again_!"

He sat down and lowered his head in sadness.

"Come on, lad" Teo tried to cheer Babsticles up, "just head north from here. It's not that hard. Go on."

He pulled Babsticles up and sent him off.

"And watch out for the monsters!"

"Last call for Victoria, leaving in two minutes! Last call for Victoria." was heard through the speakers at the station hallway that separated the ticket booth from the boat as Iucounu teleported through at an amazing speed.

Once arriver, he showed his ticket to the usher.

"Am I.. still.. in time?" he asked while heavily breathing. _That much teleporting sure took a lot of magic._ he thought.

"Thank you and welcome to Orbis airlines. Enjoy your ride!" she said.

The priest walked up the boarding plank.

The cloudless sky ensured a calm trip. Crimson Balrogs roam in the more darker and stormy weathers.

"Please remain on board until the ship has landed and is secured." said the speakers after some time.

Iucounu stepped out and followed the crowd to the open air. When the vessel was safely secured, everyone went to the exit point.

"Thank you for traveling with Orbis Airlines. Have a nice day!"

The crew was busy checking the ship and in Ellinia, new passengers wanted to go to Orbis.

The priest walked through the wooden gate and entered the city of Ellinia.

He liked being here. It all felt so.. magically as he felt his magic pool increase.

A faint noise snapped him out of his dreamy state.

_Okay, let's stay on track here. I gotta meet Hellz at the ground floor._ he thought and jumped down like he had always done. Even though the branches the city was built on were slippery, Iucounu had no trouble keeping his balance.

The faint noise became stronger and more distinguished. He heard voices coming from below him and a whole crowd of people stood around Rooney.

_Probably Happyville has been opened again. It's the time of the year._ he thought and looked around to see if Hellz was already waiting. Nobody looked like the friend he was looking for and Iucounu sat down on the nearby bench and listened to the crowd's many voices.

"Rooney! Rooney! Is it true that Happyville hasn't opened yet?" said one of them.

"Rooney, why hasn't there been an announcement about the new activities around Happyville?" said another.

"How come Happyville isn't opened yet? Isn't it the time to open up?" a third said.

Poor Rooney was flooded with questions and she was trying to answer them.

"Calm down please! One question at a time!" she shouted above the people's loud noise.

"Happyville is currently not open, because of the snow.."

"Sitting comfy?" said a person dressed in the darkest shade of blue. His eyes weren't looking too happy at the priest.

"Hey Hellz." said Iucounu. "Good you're here. What's going on with Happyville?"

"Like I care.." growled Hellz back. "Let's go to the dungeon. You promised to help out."

"But.." started Iucounu, but Hellz looked so determined that he agreed and left for the Eternity Tree at the center of the island.


	4. Alcaster

"What happened to the weather?" he asked the old man.

He was dressed in blue robes with golden lining. His silvery beard nearly reached his feet and his face was all wrinkles.

"My boy, why do you want to know?"

Fury explained what he saw at the board and the old magician nodded as a sign of understanding.

"Ah yes. The snow." said Alcaster. "After it hadn't snowed for two days, I was worried and investigated the situation. My research led me to several causes. Only one is acceptably plausible."

"What cause did you find?" asked the warrior.

"Still, it's just hypothetically speaking. I have no real proof of my theory." Alcaster ignored Fury's question.

He began to mumble to himself and Fury looked at him in a strange way.

"Um.. sir?"

"Huh? What?" Alcaster looked around, confused until he noticed Fury.

"Oh, um yes um. I don't suppose you're busy with anything, kid?" he asked.

"I'm trying to find out where all the snow went to."

"Oh good! So am I. Could you deliver this letter to my friend Grendel? I'm sure he can help you more than I can." the old man handed over a sealed black piece of parchment. "Thank you."

Fury put the parchment in the special compartment in his bag and left the scene in a confused state.

_Wwwhatever. Grendel, at least, isn't that mentally crooked as Alcaster. Sealing the Book of Ancient sure changed him._ Fury thought and felt a shred of pity for the old blue mage.

The tower was cold, but a bit warmer than outside and Fury touched the Teleport rock. It was located at the top of the first floor and transports those who carry a special scroll to the top of the tower.

Fury, however did _not_ have such a scroll anymore.

"Oh crap on my shoes, I'm all out!" he shouted. Out of anger, he killed a small Pepe with a way too powerful strike of his two-handed Sunrise. It was this property that gave him his, much liked, nickname Fury.

"Now I gotta _WALK_ up.. rahh!" he growled and started his long way upwards.

Six floors up, he had exploited enough presences of monsters to calm down and an idea came to his mind.

Half an hour later, he had gathered all the ingredients for Huckle's research on the sentinels.

"Here are the scrolls. Use them wisely." the old man in the cavity in the middle of the tower said and gave Fury five Teleport scrolls in exchange for the sentinel shells.

_Finally_ thought the crusader as he looked at the beautiful statue, _the top. Now off to Grendel, Ellinia._

The station was very crowded while Fury bought his ticket. It took him more than ten minutes to get at the sales point.

He sped off with his red whip and arrived at the docking pad where it was also quite hectic.

When he was _finally_ aboard, the ship was too full for a free room, so the aggravated crusader had to stay in the open, windy air. The sky was spotless in every direction. It saddened Fury a bit.

"No rogs eh?" he mumbled, "too bad.. I sure am in the mood for some killin'."

"All aboaard!"

It was dark all around him. Countless, tall trees with thousands of leafs surrounded him in every direction. The roof was so thick, no sunlight reached the forest ground. The ground itself was wet, mossy and a bit slippery. There were weird rocks with faces leaning against some trees. They all seemed to look at the boy while he kept walking.

He tripped over a tree root sticking out, lost his balance and nearly fell. That was the tenth time that happened.

"Where the _HELL_ am I?!" shouted poor Babsticles without a single trace of an echo.


	5. The Thing

Fury walked through the grand gate that separates Ellinia from the docks.

The ground immediately became slippery and the crusader sat down, raised his feet and took his shoes off. He put them in his clothes bag, took out the shoes he uses to walk on ice and put them on.

_Now, at least, I can run up to old man's house_ he thought and did so.

Three knocks on a wooden door later, Fury stepped in the warm house. The door magically closed behind him.

Grendel was, as always, hovering in his home, about 10 feet up the air.

He was dressed in all white and held up a crystalline orb. His eyes were shut.

"I have been expecting you, Clint." Grendel calmly said to Fury, who looked surprised at the hovering mage above him.

"I'm called _Fury_ now, _old man_." he replied.

"And the people prefer to call me Grendel, or sir." flung Grendel back, keeping his calm voice.

"I would like to have that letter now, Fury."

"This may take a while. Please take a seat and try to be patient." said Grendel after reading the black parchment.

As Fury was looking for a place comfortable enough, Grendel his pose and both the orb as the yellow star began shining brightly.

The trees were never ending as Babsticles walked around. He somehow knew that particular rock on his left.

"I think I've seen that one before.." he mumbled and took a closer look.

"Oh CRAP, I _have_ seen it!" he said and his eyes became watery.

"I'm walking around in circles!" he snickered and sat down. Something odd touched him and, as he looked what it was, he saw his bag.

The boy remembered his dad had given him a special return scroll. It was an old one, and would teleport him to Ellinia.

What the kid didn't know, was that town scrolls are imbued with low quality magic. Magic that loses power over time.

He activated it.

A jolt on his navel brought him flying through the forest and in no time had reached Ellinia. Or so he thought, he had never visited the upon trees built town.

"Ooh snow!" he shouted in joy.

There was a thin layer of wet snow on the ground. There were lines of building and shops on both sides of the street. No snow on the roofs though, it had all melted away. The Christmas lights were out and the whole scene looked gloomy.

Babsticles didn't notice that. He didn't even notice he was the only person here and that all the buildings were deserted.

Although.. alone? A pair of red eyed glowed in an alley.

Wet snow was still flying around everywhere due to a boy throwing it in joy.

Happyville wasn't looking that happy at all.

Fury kept a keen eye on the white mage.

Suddenly, the glow stopped and the orb fell out of Grendel's hand. Fury saw it happen and jumped up to catch the crystal object. When he looked at Grendel himself, he too stopped shining.

"What the..?" Fury mumbled and caught the falling person, laid him down and rested Grendel to a nearby barrel.

"What happened?" asked the old man faintly.

"You suddenly fell" is what happened.

Grendel realized what he had gone through.

"Fury, listen carefully," Grendel grabbed the warrior's shoulder, "there's malice going on in Happyville. Tell Rooney to let you pass on my order. Hurry, I'll be fine."

"Are you seriously OK?" Fury asked.

"It just broke my Verzie spell, now go!"

Fury sprinted out, jumped to the right and touched a specific wooden pole. An instant later, he stood at the bottom of Ellinia and ran to Rooney, straight through the crowd.

"Rooney! You gotta let me enter Happyville. Special orders from Grendel."

The crowd around Rooney fell silent and for a second Rooney looked at Fury.

She silently grabbed his hands and closed her eyes. Fury closed his too.

"What happened to master Grendel?" she asked when they had landed again.

Fury looked the other way. He looked at his hands, while his face turned slightly red.

"NO-nothing big." he muttered.

"Is he okay? Why did he allow you to enter Happyville?" she kept asking.

"Grendel i-is okay. He ssaid something was going on.. here."

They looked at the houses and the wet snow all around the, even on the walls there were wet spots.

"Snowballs?" mumbled Fury.

"What is that.. that _thing_ over there?" said Rooney, pointing at the west end of the street.

She sounded almost hysterical and the crusader looked in the same direction she pointed.

His eyes became large of shock.


	6. Dark Times

Grey wings like a Balrog. Horns like a Tauromacis. It had the red eyes of Lucidas, the teeth of Evil Eyes. Its skin was like a full-grown Cargo. It was all grey and it was sneaking around.

Both Roooney and Fury slipped in the nearest alley and looked closer at the weird beast.

"That beast is not normal. He's one big piece of rock! I know, because I've seen it before..." whispered Fury.

"_What is it_?" asked Rooney in a whisper.

"I think it's a stone Gargoyle, from the looks of it. But I don't know for sure where it came from. Ossyria is an awful lot far from here." mumbled Fury.

"It must've come from this island then."

"It's coming this way!" said Fury, quickly hiding.

Without reason, nor warning, the sky turned black around Happyville, blinding the sunlight. In a radius of certainly a mile, everything turned black.

In the pitch black, only two eyes could be seen. They were red and lightly glowing. A blink later and the Gargoyle was gone. Fury slowly unsheathed his sword in silence and was on red alert.

_Where did it go?_ he thought as he looked around. "Rooney? Can you see it?" the crusader whispered.

She mumbled something that resembled 'nuhu' and clung to Fury. She was scared as hell.

They were silently watching the scene as they listened to the footsteps of the monster they saw disappear only ten seconds ago.

Then, they heard a different kind of footsteps, running ones. They were faint, but definitely fast and approaching.

A voice spoke "What happened to the sky-y-yyaahhh! Heelp!" It was a child's voice.

Rooney was nailed to the floor in fear. It was all in her eyes.

Fury didn't waste a second and activated his shouting Tiger. "Rrooaaaarr!!" it echoed through the streets. The light it generated showed the Gargoyle holding a person's body, but as soon as it noticed Fury, it dropped the body.

Red eyes looked straight at Fury and they were approaching fast. The light of the Tiger had dimmed and Fury activated both his Powerguard as Combo, seen by a stone shell and a faint blue light appearing and disappearing again.

Rooney watched as orbs around the crusader came to existence, circling around the body and adding up after each hit.

They were light-blue, fluorescent and lit the blurred fighting bodies.

The Gargoyle was attacking by means of scratching and kicking. The warrior's superior martial arts blocked and countered many attacks, while landing several himself.

Then, she saw it happen, a part of the sky turned red and struck the fighters with a red lightning. The Stone head glowed and a huge red beam shot out the mouth. Fury had no chance of avoiding it and got the full load. Every piece of energy and the red light made the warrior invisible within the beam.

Rooney screamed it out.

The smoke from Fury's stone shell was immense. It became brittle and the shell crumbled apart under in red pieces.

Only by calling for Powerguard did the crusader save himself. He was okay, but definitely exhausted by the long use of his small mana pool. It was severely drained.

He looked bad in the faint blue light from the orbs around him.

The Gargoyle had turned its attention to Rooney after it heard her scream, but when the blue light shined on its face, it noticed the warrior it blasted was still alive.

It was the last thing it would notice, because Fury had five orbs circling around him and had gathered them on his blade.

"_PANIIIC_!!" he shouted with his loudest voice and swung the now blue Devil's Sunrise down hard and fast. The moment it hit, a huge blue light came from Fury and a blinding purple blast from the tip of the sword, blasting the Stone Gargoyle apart.

The sky turned back to normal again and Rooney protected her eyes against the now blinding sunlight. Fury collapsed on his knees and sat down, holding himself up with the length of the sword, breathing heavily.

When she was used to the light again, Rooney looked at Fury. He was sitting in front of the remains of the monster.

A mere pile of grey rubble was all that was left of the Stone monster.

She sighed in relief and looked around to see where that other person was. She saw a small boy lying in the snow. Dressed in simple clothing, he shouldn't have been strong at all. No wonder the Gargoyle chose _him_ as its victim. He was unconscious and has scratch wounds.

None were life-threatening. She called Fury who was now busy wrapping up the rubble in a spare cape he had taken out his bag.

They grabbed each other's hands and the boy's hands and closed their eyes.

A smile played on the face of a barely visible person in an unseen alley across the street.


	7. Dungeon

It was dark in the part of the dungeon the two friends were roaming. It was one big shadow, besides the faint blue glows from the rocks. Tiny crystals on the surface reflected the little light available. The light came from the torch Hellz held onto.

Iucounu's fully mastered long-term protective skill had expired and he stood still for a second. He closed his eyes and a cute little magic fairy appeared. She tapped her tiny wand as blue sparkles fell on the Galaxy hat that her master donned.

The fairy vanished again and Iucounu opened his eyes again. Hellz looked at him.

"What the hell was that all about?" he said as he frowned. Iucounu mumbled something about some sort of magic protection.

A while later, the two came in a small, yet very tall cave. Beams of sunlight even made it from the surface to all the way down this deep. It enlightened an enormous door of blue stone, with engraved markings.

The markings told a tale, but nobody could figure out what. The door was half destroyed and looked as if it would all collapse any second.

Though is has been decades since something happened to that door. Nobody was afraid it would fall.

"Ah.. the Cursed Sanctuary's entrance. Who knows what has happened in there." said Iucounu in awe and out of curiosity.

"Who _cares_ what happened." mumbled Hellz and he nodded to the dark cave behind the doors.

"I was wondering, if you're a fire mage, why the torch?"

Hellz's short fuse began to shorten even more as he sarcastically said "I changed jobs, okay? Happy?" he looked around in suspicion.

"Oh.. saving mana eh? Ok." said the priest.

"Okay, SHOW yourself!" shouted Hellz.

"But I.." started Iucounu. He had no idea what was going on and why Hellz wanted someone to show itself.

"Hihihi.." it echoed through the cave. It came from above, no the left, no from above again.

"Show your face, unless you want to _LOSE IT_!" yelled the black mage in anger.

The laughter was heard again, and yet again from a different angle.

Hellz raised his wand and pointed it at the place he thought the laughter came from. A barely visible rod like thing flew out the wand and towards the place Hellz had pointed. When it hit the rock wall, it had the sound of metal bashing on rocks, yet nothing was seen.

Again, laughs were heard. Iucounu frowned in thoughts.

"I've heard this voice before.." he mumbled. Hellz looked at the priest.

"Is this one of your insane friends again?!" he shouted. "Why the hell are all of your friends like this?!"

"I think so, but she's only playing." said Iucounu and smiled.

"How can you..?" began Hellz, "Ugh.. I hate this."

"Is that.. you Lokima?"

"Oh, so finally you noticed." the voice came from right behind Hellz but when both of them turned around, she wasn't there.

Hellz raised his wand again, but something held it back.

"Bad boy." the girl said. The invisibility was gone and the black and white friends looked at an all in black dressed girl.

She wore a black top, black skirt and wore black shoes. She donned a black Pirate's hat and wore black gloves. Even her hair was black.

The only things not black were the brown belts on her shoes, the white skulls on her skirt and hat, and her brown eyes.

"Hey hun," she said as she ravaged Hellz his hair and looked at Iucounu and walked to him, "Who's the kid?"

They kissed and Lokima messed with her Varkit, a richly decorated, double-v shaped dagger with a handmade grip and gold finishing on the edge of the blade.

"This is Hellz. I'm helping him out with a quest. The old ghost around here asked him to get those spirit orbs." Iucounu answered.

"He tried to hurt me." Lokima said with an exaggerated sad voice. She looked angry at the black clothed boy. Hellz looked at the door. He didn't care at all.

"I would've patched you up right away, like always, sweetie." said her boyfriend.

"I know, hunny." she said, but before they could kiss again, Hellz said "LET's.. GO!" very loud.

"But I'm not in the party yet!" said the bandit.

Iucounu searched his pocket, took out a small button and gave it to his girlfriend.

"Here, take this. It's a new thingy from Grendel. He said it's an AP, Always Party. He told me to take two and test them out."

"Oh cool! Thanks hun!" Lokima said and she hugged her priest.

"I got one too. They display the location and the condition of the person wearing it. Always!"

"Ugh.. LET'S GO!" shouted Hellz again and walked through the door. He didn't see Lokima stick out her tongue to him.


	8. At Another Path

Lokima accepted the badge and pinned it on the side of her skirt. She was truly happy with it.

_Now I know how my hunny is __doing and where I can find him._ she thought

_Scaring him will be more easy now!_ she went all blissful as he cheeks turned red.

They followed the boy in black through the door and darkness engulfed the party of three.

As before, only the small torch shed light on the cave, but this time, they were not alone. Cold, white eyes shimmered in the dark.

They looked like their yellow and green cousins back in Sleepywood and Ellinia, and the tallest section of the Dungeon called the Evil Eyes Tower.

One tail, one big eye, a set of sharp and bloodstained teeth and two feet: that is what they looked like.

"Careful," said Iucounu, "you know what they say about Cold Eyes: Where there's one, there's way more!"

He raised two fingers together and a big white-green light emitting tree grew from them. Then it vanished again. "Meditation." he had mumbled and looked determined at the dark ahead.

"They're easy to kill anyway. Let them _come_!" boasted the bandit. She had put her weapon in front of her face to show she was seriously ready to kill.

Hellz silently activated his Magic Guard too, but instead of a cute fairy, like Iucounu's, a flaming sword's embers were raining down on him.

"What?" he growled when he saw Lokima's face.

"Nothing." she said.

As the group was walking alertly through the zigzagging tunnel, they were growled and hissed at from all sides.

At the third descending path, a geyser blasted hot water up to the surface and surprised Lokima. It had erupted right in front of her and she seeked shelter at Iucounu, with whom she walked onwards.

More geysers were active in the tunnels down here. As they started their fifth and final descent, the Cold Eyes were so restless, anything could trigger an attack. The exit was faintly visible as a blue spot.

Another geyser spawned hot water, surprising Lokima again and she screamed in pain. Her right arm was burnt by the water. A split second later, Iucounu's badge started bleeping and showed 'Lokima, Victoria: Dungeon, hurt'.

As the priest grabbed his badge to see what happened to it, he triggered a green shower of particles on Lokima, instantly healing her injured arm. She sighed in relief and the priest saw his badge change back to 'Lokima, Victoria: Dungeon, OK'.

"They work pretty fast," he mumbled. "How's your arm, Loki? Iucounu asked and looked at her.

"F-fine" she said, still a bit shocked. "Thanks."

"I told you I'd patch you up right away, like always." he said as comfort to the girl.

"Shut up and look around! We have a situation here!" said Hellz with his wand ready.

Dozens of Cold Eyes were rushing towards them.

"Soo many!" shouted Lokima. "But not _too_ many. Heh." she had that look on her face, when someone has a devious plan.

She grabbed her meso-bag and started spraying mesos all around the, in a big circle. The light of the torch was reflected in the coins and the one-eyed monsters ran towards them.

They stopped in a big circle around the three.

They were surrounded by at least a hundred squirming white bodies. The Cold Eyes stood on the coins the bandit had laid out.

"When I say so, we run for it, okay?" Lokima said. "_Hayaku_!"

Strange markings appeared above the heads of the other two persons as Lokima said that one word. She herself was surrounded by the same, but much bigger. It was Haste.

One Cold Eye broke the line and ran at Lokima, who eagerly stabbed the monster brutally to death.

"_Sayounara_!"

All the individual coins scattered around in the circle glowed bright white. For a split second the whole long tunnel was eerie white and shadowed by huge Cold Eyes, the next they were all blown to tiny smithereens as three persons made a dash for the small exit.

Hundred more Cold Eyes joined the dash and tried to get a tasty meal from the three leading.

The Cold Eyes failed when the trio reached a bright blue hallway, jumped across the first huge gap with amazing speed and jump power.

The monsters flooded down the edge and fell into the hallway's stone floor.

Further ahead were huge hairy monsters with spears with a crescent moon as tip. Tauromacis and Cold Eyes were waiting down on the floor.

The three stood on the top a broken archway above the hall. Surrounded by a horde of monsters.


	9. Betrayal

"Let's go on with the quest." said Iucounu. "We're done with these Cold Eyes."

They jumped down on the field of dead Cold Eyes and a few Tauromacis.

"Good thing my Meso Explosion worked from up the pillars." smirked Lokima.

Hellz searched the bodies of the Macis and took out three light blue orbs.

"Three down, thirteen to go. Let's go deeper." said he.

"I'm not going to throw more of my money on the floor to blow 'em up! Fight with weapons next." the bandit took out her dagger again.

A small entrance, or rather a gap in the wall, led to the next area. The gap was slightly above a door that fitted in the archways that were spread all across the long hallway. It was the same type of door they saw at the entrance.

The second hall looked exactly the same, but there were several differences. It was distinctively shorter, had a lower part around halfway to the end and there were less pillars that stood upright.

More ravage had happened here.

"Here we fight. Hellz, what do you need for the quest?" said the priest.

"Only the Macis spirits. I've had help with the other ones." Hellz answered.

"We'll have to take down the Macis together fast, or they will retaliate with lightning. So be careful."

They jumped down and immediately were facing two Macis and six Cold Eyes. Hellz raised his wand and pointed at the monster, mumbled something and saw it squirm in pain. He then swished with his weapon and saw the beast fall down. Death had come swiftly to it.

Meanwhile, Lokima had rushed towards the Tauromacis and was using a series of fast attacks on it, while the tall beast howled in pain, trying to grab the bandit. It was too slow to get hold of the fast moving girl with her quick stabs. Before long, it was slain with a long howling sound.

The second monster did not last long against Iucounu's strong holy magic; one after another, he fired holy arrows from the Dark Ritual. The dark nature of the staff was rejecting holy magic, making the arrows extremely fast.

Neither the Cold Eyes not the demonic Tauromacis could cause much injuries, spite the occasional strike of lightning.

Hellz gathered up more and more spirits and soon they were hunting for the last orb.

During that hunt, the three heard a loud banging sound and the howling noise of Tauromacis.

Dust fell down from the door that led deeper.

Lokima hastily went to check it out and shouted back that the door was being opened by something! The trio decided to keep fighting, but to move to the upper part of the area.

Moments later, the door flew open and a horde of Cold Eyes, Tauromacis and Taurospears barged in. The other type of Tauro was dressed in blue armor, carried a green spear with double tip and had brown horns on its head. They were significantly stronger then their red armored, orange horned cousins.

The lower section was flooding with monsters and they were piling down there. The Taurospears howled and now even the door the small party came from was creaking open.

"I think we're getting a problem now, guys." said Iucounu and shot a Cold Eye through the head. "I'm gonna have to change tactics and use a higher level spell."

When he did, big wings spouted out the back of him as an angel with a sword appeared. Six Cold Eyes perished by the magic attacks of the angel.

The angel turned completely white and dispersed again.

The upper part of the cave was now free from monsters. A Tauromacis howled again.

The three looked at the door on front of them. All sorts of magic protections and skills were activated by the group as they awaited whatever was behind those doors.

Then a final bash against the door blew it open.

Dozens of Tauromacis, along with another horde of Eyes looked at the three humans. More were coming in from the lower part as well.

"Here we go!" shouted the priest and activated the angel time after time. Hellz was swishing his wand rapidly, but calm. Lokima tossed a bag full of money into the midst of the horde and blew it up.

Numerous monsters perished by the reign of death the trio caused.

The Macis did not care about the Eyes and slammed their crescent moons into the floor, creating lightning strikes all over the hall.

"There's too many!" shouted Lokima. The badges were constantly bleeping after every struck of lightning and after every shower of green that followed it.

"Keep fighting!" shouted the priest above the tremendous rumors while taking down another six Cold Eyes with the angel attack.

Slowly, but surely, the monsters gained space and drove the humans to the edge.

Then all of the sudden, they stopped their charge and fell silent. Lokima, Hellz and Iucounu stopped fighting and looked at the monsters.

"They're waiting for something... but what?" said Iucounu.

"Good job, Hellz. Come here." said a voice coming from above.

Another boy in black stood behind the monsters, on a pillar. He had three sword on him and spoke with a calm voice, like Hellz, but he sounded somewhat more.. devious and dark.

Hellz lowered his wand and walked calmly through the horde. Iucounu looked at him surprised by the actions of his friend.

"Hellz? What's going on?" he asked. "What do you have to do with Densetsu? You know that kid is dangerous!"

Lokima whispered to Iucounu "_THE_ Densetsu?!"

He nodded back.

"Well well, Iucounu, priest of Bejage. Hellz has told me a great deal about you. You will come with us now, to serve your purpose." Densetsu said calmly again.

"What's your plan?" asked Lokima. Iucounu's whisper made Lokima unable to hear Hell'z reply. "I'm gonna use _the_ skill. It'll wipe out everything within a hundred meters. Get outta here when I say so. Tell Grendel."

"NO!" shouted Lokima.

"I'll be fine." whispered the priest.

"Oh yes, Lord Ergoth will be pleased. Now come, priest!" said Densetsu and smirked. He had no idea of the small talk that just happened.

"Now.." whispered the priest. Lokima vanished.

"GET THE GIRL!" shouted Hellz to the monsters. "She must NOT escape!"

Iucounu closed his eyes and started mumbling something. The floor beneath him started to show a magic circle full of markings, and started to shine brightly.

A golden angel appeared, praying. She wore golden clothes, had long hair and wings. She unfolded her wings to the full and they spanned eight meters wide.

Densetsu's eyes became large and he vanished.

The ceiling began to open up in a golden circle. More gaps were opening everywhere, maybe even a hundred. The entire cave was lit in golden light and then it happened:

A bulb of golden energy gathered in every gap in the ceiling. For every monster, there was a gap, for everything there was an energy bulb. A split second later, all the bulbs blasted a thick beam of golden, pure energy and instantly disintegrated every monster in the cave. Even outside the two doors, monsters were heard dying. Loud howls from at least twenty Tauromacis and Taurospears were heard.

A second later, everything turned black again and Iucounu fell to on his knees. The angel had vanished, the glow was fading and the pool of Iucounu's mana was nearly empty.

Densetsu appeared again. He was unharmed and looked foul at the exhausted priest.

As she was running, Lokima's badge was bleeping constantly. When she reached the tall cave again, she stopped and listened at the edge of the door.

Hundreds of cries, howls and roars were heard and she knew Iucounu's Genesis had killed everything down below. She was ready to walked back and help her boyfriend out, when she noticed her badge was still bleeping.

'Iucounu, Victoria: Dungeon, badly wounded'

She gasped as she now knew Densetsu had survived and now attacked him. It bleeped again, saying Iucounu was 'OK', 'wounded', 'OK', 'badly wounded', 'OK', 'unconscious'.

"Oh no!" she gasped.

"There you are!" shouted Hellz, but he was too late; Lokima had already fled.


	10. True Culprit

Grendel had recovered from the attack on his mind.

"That was strong magic" he mumbled as he was hovering once again.

The magic had canceled his Verzie spell. It takes the right amount of power in the opposite direction at the right time to break a spell effectively enough to cause damage to the other user.

_Something stirs on this island_ thought Grendel as he frowned _and it looked at Happyville._

"Who or what could it be?" he wondered. "It's too soon to tell. I'll have to wait for him to show himself to us." mumbled the old man.

A small popping sound told Grendel that someone was at his door. He waved his hand, opened the door and let Fury and Rooney in.

"Excuse us, sir." started Rooney.

"We've encountered something in Happyville!" said Fury and he took out the spare cape.

Grendel lowered himself to get a closer look. "Hush now."

As he opened the cape and saw the rubble, he studied it. And some more.

And some more.

He then grabbed a handful of it and threw it up in the air, mumbled some sort of spell and as Fury looked at the remaining stone, it joined the rest in the air.

A big ball of stone formed, but slowly took the shape of the monstrous Gargoyle the crusader bashed into pieces earlier.

It remained plain stone though.

"So it was a Gargoyle... with strange markings on its forehead. Hmm..." mumbled Grendel as he walked around the flying stone object.

"Rooney, dear, can you handle me that piece of paper there, and a pencil? To you left." he said.

When she gave it, along with the pencil, he thanked her, put the paper on the forehead and scratched the markings on the paper.

The Gargoyle turned back to rubble and was put back in the cape and closed.

The mage selected a book from his library, opened it at the right page and began reading.

He lifted an eyebrow and opened a second book, began reading and turning pages.

Now both eyebrows were raised and a third book was opened.

Pages were turned to search the right page. As the old man began reading, his eyebrows went down into a frown and four more books were picked from their shelves.

Rooney and Fury were still standing and watching the research of Grendel. As more and more material landed on the desk, and Grendel was less and less visible, the two decided to sit and wait it out.

Lokima still couldn't believe it. Iucounu was captured by Densetsu _in person!_ Densetsu... _THE_ Densetsu!

The smokers were bad, but in fact, they were a small organization _under_ him!

Sora was only child's play compared to Densetsu!

_This is horrible! I have to tell Grendel, Athena, Dances and Kerin what happened. Especially Dark Lord Kerin__, since he's Densetsu's sensei._

She reactivated her Haste and her Stealth and ran further upwards in the Evil Tower.

"Aha! Found it." said Grendel. Fury and Rooney stood up and saw the mage show up behind his wall of books.

"I know here this beast was made!"

Four eyes and four ears were aimed at Grendel now as he explained.

"The markings on the Gargoyle is ancient magic. Magic that is bound my signs and runes. The user has to be either very old, reincarnated or summoned from the dead. So I looked up the second marking on its tail and found its origin, Babylon." said the man

"But Grendel," started Fury," Babylon is long gone and lost!"

"And it has been discovered again, under a different name though. Sheranian. Since everyone in those ruins is dead, I had to search deeper, for the stone your Gargoyle is made of." he continued.

"It can only be made with half a dozen ingredients. Each ingredient can be found in Sheranian though, and it has to be kept in dry dark and in the air.. Sheranian is dark, dry but not aired, since everything was buried.

Also, the stone Gargoyles were never seen in there since it was excavated last year. So I researched old Babylonian history to find out if there could be something that is buried, but not flooded with sand. I found a huge castle, owned by Count Ergoth Sheranian of Babylon."

"Ergoth?" said Rooney, "Wasn't he banned from life? He can't do this kind of things, he's well and truly dead, sir."

"True, he was banned from life because he was experimenting with stone to bring it to life. All documents on the experiments themselves are effectively destroyed, but the nature is still known." said the old mage.

"The people of Babylon sealed Ergoth away in a tomb and buried it deep beneath the castle. They places four stone guardians and imbued them with magic to stop anyone from waking the banned mage." he continued.

"Ergoth is the _only_ magician who still knows the plans of the experiments. He kept them hidden... in his mind."

"But then... who could have opened his tomb?" asked Rooney.


	11. Preparations

**December 20, five days till Christmas**

It has been three days since Iucounu was seen and Lokima had told the Four Wisemen of Victoria Island what had happened.

All over Victoria, Gargoyles had appeared. Most were destroyed, some had taken lives, others had taken people to Sheranian.

Snow in Happyville and El Nath had all melted away and made room for grass.

This would be a green Christmas if nothing was done about it.

The situation was getting worse and worse every day. Above Sheranian, the sky was now permanently black as the number of skeletons and stone Gargoyles increased daily.

Athena had ordered to put a briefing on every town board of the Island, on every guild board and in the towns of El Nath and Orbis, the closest to Victoria to come to aid in the war.

The war for a white Christmas, for snow and ice in El Nath and Happyville, in the war against Densetsu and his new puppet, Ergoth. To come to Perion and prepare to invade Sheranian.

But Grendel did not want this many victims, for Ergoth's throne was in a fairly small room, space for maybe ten to fight.

"But we'll need an army to defeat an army!" said Athena and mentioned the number of skeletons of last year's tragic event.

"Ten people are not enough to defeat an army." she continued. Grendel was convinced, but did want her to come up with a decent plan to invade the ruined excavation site.

**Dece****mber 24, one day till Christmas**

And so it was, that hundreds strong magicians, warriors, archers and thieves stood behind the gates of Perion.

It was early in the evening as campfires were set up, prepared to be lit for light and warmth, for it could become very cold during the nights in Perion.

Dances with Balrogs had divided everyone in different attack groups. Each group would have a task to help the main groups into the castle. Those groups had a leader group, which was made of the strongest people and formed the group to kill Ergoth and clean his soul from ever thinking again. It was also the only team with a priest, since the Gargoyles had taken or killed all the other priests.

"Tomorrow, we will head for Sheranian! Tomorrow, we will fight an army of the dead. Do not fear them. They may be with many, but the yare not strong enough to defeat us!" Dances shouted over the campfires with his strong voice.

"Each team knows what to do, each of us will help in defeating Ergoth." said Athena on her sharp tone.

Grendel stepped up and added a warning:

"To those who will go past the runic gate and enter the castle, collect your earrings here. _Do not_, I repeat, _DO NOT REMOVE_ them while inside. There's powerful dark magic there that will instantly _KILL_ you if you don't wear them!"

**December 25, Christmas day**

Snow had not fallen in three weeks now. The sky above Sheranian was pitch black.

The teams woke up early, and, after breakfast, moved to the circle of holy ground, laid last year.

The skeleton army was seen across it.

"So this is where we will fight for a white Christmas, eh?" mumbled Fury's teammate, chosen to fight and kill count Ergoth Sheranian of Babylon on his throne deep in the castle.


	12. The Pieces Are Moving

"What if we fail?" asked Ricky. His teammates all looked at him, some in fear, others determined.

"If we fail, you won't be around to know what happens. Now shut it!" said Kura, the fierce archer. She was the best bow mistress in the world with her Golden Dragon Shine bow.

It's also very unwise to argue with her.

"Let's kick some skeleton asses!" she said.

"You kick, I crush!" shouted Arnold, the white knight of the team. He's specialized in fire, ice and holy attacks. He waved his great Golden Smith hammer about and smashed it into the ground.

Fury and Lokima looked at each other and thought the same thing about Arnold.

The team was to wait with two other teams for the other teams to have made a gap large enough for them to pass the field and into the castle.

Twenty teams passed the holy ground and cried out battle cries or passed in silent mumbling.

the skeletons they saw earlier pulled back at the sight of approaching humans.

Soon enough, the fighting started.

As the three teams waited in patience, Lokima watched the distant fighting and said that it might be better if they were closer to the actual fighting so a gap was seen sooner.

Many agreed and began walking.

As the battle drew nearer, the light began to fade more to a shimmering, but the noise grew only bigger.

Before them, there were blue, green, red and white blasts of mana energy and steel clashing on stone and bone. Everyone was fighting for his or her life.

Skeletons with arrows pierced through their heads kept fighting and slashed in on scared archers. Those with an arm less kept attacking warriors, green showers of clerics were everywhere.

Only brutal attacks seemed to stop the stone and bone demons from attacking ever again.

"Me go kill stone monsters!" shouted Arnold and ran off, ignoring the shouts from the other teams.

He hammered in on the closest Gargoyle and smashed it in one fierce blow. He continued smashing a skeleton that had noticed him. It too died under a mighty bash from the hammerhead on its skull.

"Oh what the heck, we'll all fight our ways on!" said David the bandit. "Come on, people. Are we that much of a chicken that we're letting others fight for us? Or are we the crown of the force and smash those weakling skeletons!?"

Fury agreed, and added "Warriors to the front! The priestess should be kept safe in the middle and use her holy magic to kill the skeletons from a distance. Kura, Viper, try using the strongest arrow Bombs you have and blast the skulls off the skeletons."

"Let's kick some asses!" yelled Kura, everyone else shouted it too. "LET'S KICK SOME ASSES!!"

"Better than doing nothing" said Lokima and took out the badge her boyfriend had given her. It still said 'Iucounu, Victoria: Sheranian, OK'

"What's that?" asked Ricky "some dumb badge? Lemme see." and grasped for it.

"NO!" growled Lokima as she safely put the badge away. "The value of this badge is beyond your knowledge."

"Ya don't have to get all pissy, girl." he sneered and bumped her to the side as he walked away.

Kura had seen the whole thing and, as she passed by Lokima, she whispered "Some boys are idiots."

"Mine isn't. I'm coming for you my dear." Lokima mumbled.

Fury, Arnold and two other warriors took care of the skeletons and stone Gargoyles up front. While the only priestess, Enomis, Kura, Viper and a crossbow master took care of the skeletons at the other sides.

the healing waves of the priestess disintegrated the undead, while the powerful hits of metal and the arrow bombs blasted the creatures away.

The three teams went through the field as a knife through butter. The 18 people worked together like no-one else in the battle, but soon weren't the only ones who began such strategies to turn the war to the better side.

The main group arrived at the runic gate's field, after passing through skeletons on horses. The fumes from the horses were detoxicated by the Poison mages of the teams and the skeletons set on fire by the same persons.

"Take that for trying to poison a poison mage!" one had yelled in anger.

Across the field was only a faint shadow. It stood before the gates, like a guard. As the teams closed in, one of the fire mages fell to the ground.

He was dead.

Everyone gasped at the event, and the shadow spoke:

"No trespassing."

Lokima's eyes widened as she realized she knew who the voice was.

"HELLZ! You treacherous bastard! You're _MINE_" she shouted and, as she broke out the formation, she activated Haste and Booster, threw a bag at the boy and blew it up in his face.

Hellz was gone, but not dead as Lokima heard a swish and jumped back.


	13. Hall Of The Knight

Hellz had cut and stabbed the bandit deeply with his psychic attacks, but somehow she healed very fast. He didn't understand as he kept hitting her, and she kept healing instantly.

He didn't know that the badge Lokima still had, really _does_ work always.

Lokima knew the texture of the healing energy, although unseen, she felt it had to be Iucounu.

'You know I will patch you up right away, always' she had heard in her mind. It gave her strength as the two got into a power struggle. Hellz was slowly pushed backward, while the bandit walked step by step.

The gate was nearing and Lokima remembered Grendel's words and she quickly checked Hellz's earrings.

"Heh" she said as she pushed Hellz back, "you're going _off limits_ now, kid!"

A final push sent the kid in black imbalanced backwards, struggling to keep his balance, Hellz made steps and eventually lost it. He fell backwards through the gate, but there was no thud. Only a soft flapper of clothes.

The rest had only watched the two fight, but walked at Lokima now.

"What happened to that boy?" Viper asked as he looked at the pile of empty clothes.

"Let's just say he never heard Grendel's warning. Let's go." she said in anger.

"Does everyone have his or her earrings on?" asked Kura. "We don't want anyone else to end up like this poor boy."

Lokima turned to Kura "He was a traitor! Not a poor boy." she sneered.

They passed the gate, left the clothes on the ground and head for the front gate in the distance.

The Front Gate

On the wall were four statues, from middle to left were a winged lion standing on top of the gate, a horned demon's head, a stone gargoyle with a missing horn and a cloaked, winged angel.

As Fury approached the gate, suddenly a blue magic seal appeared. It was emitting a faint glow, had tribal spears on the left and right side that chained a big horned skull with six chains in the center.

"No trespassing, until given the answer." said a deep voice from above the gate.

"Who said that?" asked Fury as he looked around, but his team pointed at the lion.

"Touch the statues in order to pass." it said as four statues glowed in the dark in a specific order.

"Did anyone see the order?" said David.

Viper climbed up and touched the angel, the head, the angel and the gargoyle.

"Correct. Keep watching." the lion slowly said.

"Head..." said everyone, "angel..." as the statues glowed, "head... gargoyle... angel."

Viper waited for a repeat of what everyone just had said and touched the stone statues in the same order.

The lion found it correct again, but wanted one final test. Viper did an excellent job.

"Correct. You may pass. Use what you can find to proceed." said the lion before it turned back into a statue again.

A name glowed on top of the arch as they passed 'Hall of the Knight'.

Hall of the Knight

The whole hall was made of stone. The walls were roughly crafted as some stones had fallen out or had nearly fallen out. Some archways missed pieces that lay on the floor. On each side were two doors, and one in the back.

"Let's try the back one, it's our best chance." said Fury, who had sort of taken the leadership.

The door had the same seal on it as the front gate as he approached.

"Check the rooms, we'll have top split up. Each team takes a door. We'll to the fourth door together." said Fury.

The four door had names on their arches, like the front gate, and were named 'Room of Faith' and 'Room of Courage'. On the right 'Room of Pledge' and 'Room of Glory'.

Each team chose a door and entered.

Room of Faith

Kura's team entered and noticed that this room was split up in four high places by walls. The last three had platform floating midair and lasers that activated and deactivated. The platforms lead all the way up to the top, so did the lasers.

"Something is guarded up there." she mumbled. "Let's get up there guy's!"

"Two for each section?" asked Gary the fire mage. Kura nodded and the team started their ways up.

Room of Courage

Fury ran in with full defense and saw their room was filled with a few dozen of stone monsters. They were big, muscular and had a double shoulder belt around them.

Arnold ran pas him and started smashing them. Arrows with bombs on them flied by as they fought.

When every Stone Muscle was reduced to rubble, they looked around. Enomis found a key at the end and the team went back, as this was a dead end.

"Oh good, our door is locked." said Viper as Fury showed him the key.

Room of Pledge

"I see a box at the end of this room! I'll go get it" said Patrick the warrior of Viper's team and hastily walked through wide streams of weird green water.

"Don't just run in there!" shouted Viper, but Patrick had already reached the other end.

"I'm fine, really." he said and picked up the box. As he turned around, he stopped halfway his turn and never moved again.

"SHIIT did he just turn into STONE?!" shouted Viper. Everyone gazed at Patrick as they all saw he was grey and indeed stone.

"Gary..." started Viper.

"I'm not going through that water!" Gary said.

"Use teleport to pass the water streams. Don't let it touch you!" Viper continued. Gary nodded and flashed away over to the Patrick's stone body.

"Don't touch him!" shouted David. Gary used magic claw to shatter the box and took out a small rusty key.

Viper looked up and saw Stone Muscles on a platform above him. He went up the stairs behind him and was glad that there was a gap between the end of the stairs and the platform. Viper used Arrow Bombs to blast away the stone monsters, but they didn't even get scratched.

"Guys, come up here and bring the key." he said and everyone walked up the stairs.

"David, I want you to take the key, use your stealth and open the door at the end of this mob. Don't attack or touch the monsters, they're not normal stone.. Take whatever is behind the door and come back."


	14. Returned

Fifteen people came back from the three rooms.

"Two have fallen in our room. They lost balance and got pierced by lasers." said Kura in sadness.

"We lost one person. Turned into stone because he walked through streams of green water." said Viper.

Moral was already failing, but Lokima refused to give up.

"Come on people. We found four huge red Longinus spears, and one door left. Or are we just gonna give up on all the kidnapped people? And let Christmas get ruined by Densetsu?!" she said to cheer everyone up.

"Let's continue." and walked at the to the Room of Glory. The fourteen others followed.

Room of Glory

They faced a dozen skeleton dogs, some still had bandaged around them.

"Doogs! Kill 'em!" shouted Lokima as everyone took out a skeleton dog, either by blowing it up, crushing it, or disintegrating it completely.

When they noticed that they were at the base of five towers, each four stories high, four with more platforms like in the Room of Faith, they decided to stay together.

_First Tower_

David climbed up the rope, Flash jumped to the other rope and reached the top.

"What is up there?" shouted Enomis.

"Some sort of altar!" he answered as his head popped round the edge.

The altar was a simple, double elevated arch with two angels at the bottom of the first four-step stair to the first elevation. There was a three-step stair to the second elevation. The angels were the exact same statues as at the front gate. In the middle of the arch floated a green, rough emerald..

"What if.." mumbled David as he took the spear and placed it right under the arch.

It glowed, then flattened, split and formed two golden wings at each side of the emerald.

"Guys!" shouted David as he climbed down the ropes again. "At the altar, place the Longinus spear in the arch and it should transform into wings."

"Okay! Let's go to the other towers and place the spears!"

_Second Tower_

"Hmm, the gaps between those platforms are too big." said Alex the Ice mage of Kura's team.

"I'll go, gimme a spear. Go to the next tower, I'll be fine" said Lokima, activated her Haste and took Kura's spear.

_Third Tower_

"This one is where the dogs probably came from." said Fury as he turned around again.

_Fourth Tower_

"I think I'm getting the hang of it now.." said Viper as he vanished. He appeared half a floor higher, a level higher on the platforms.

"What the..?" started Fury, but Alex explained.

"certain stoned send you up, others back down here. It's trial and error in this tower." he said.

Viper gained floors, but then popped back down.

"Aww.. so close."

_Fi__fth Tower_

"Teleport will be needed here, seeing the distance between these levels." said Fury.

"I'll have to watch out for the lasers then." said Alex and flashed up the tower, using his Teleport.

Viper and Lokima came back from their towers.

"Careful Alex!" shouted Kura as she thought Alex would be placing the spear by now. he did.

An earthquake occurred and everyone searched for his or her balance.

Alex came down using Teleport and said that it had been a close call for him at the top.

"I nearly came down faster than with my own skill." he had said. "Let's hope the door to the next hall has opened now.."

A turn to the right after entering the Hall of the Knight again and the teams were at the door. The seal was gone.

As they entered, they stepped into a completely black hall. Only a torch shed some light on a black hooded person at the end of the hall.

Densetsu waited them up.

The teams ran at him while firing multiple long distance spells and curses, arrow bombs and throwing stars.

As the attacks neared, Densetsu raised his wand.. wait.. wand?

In mid-air, all spells faded, arrows and stars fell and the curses exploded in a cloud of dust.

"Densetsu doesn't use magic, does he?" asked Fury.

When the black dressed person said "I _ain't_ Densetsu" Lokima was shocked.

"It's.. it's Hellz!"


	15. The 'Moon Girl'

"You can't keep us here forever!" one of the priestesses shouted when Densetsu entered the dungeon.

It was dark, except for the several torches that were pinned on the walls. The cold dry stones were lit by their eerie light. The steel bars, half corroded away by rust and time, laid long shadows in the room.

The black boy softly walked around the cages that kept the prisoners where they were.

"Oh, but I won't dear Tsuki.." he calmly said. Somehow, he sounded amused.

"And what's with these hi-de-ous purple stone earrings?!" the light blue dressed boy in the left corner nagged, "they curse with my garments." He was chained to the wall.

"Hmf," Densetsu sniffed, "If you don't like them, take them off and see what happens when you do." he said an pointed at the lifeless skeletal body of the priest on the right.

Nobody lifted a finger when they were reminded of the tragedy that had happened earlier.

"What do you want..." said Iucounu, the white priest in the back cage.

Densetsu walked at his cage and glared at him.

"Seems you have not been questioned yet." he said and turned around. "What I want.. is the secret of Life!"

"You're MAD! Only Bishops know that! And none of us is that high rank. You are wasting time!" Iucounu shouted.

Densetsu turned to Iucounu again, "On the contrary, _simpleminded one_." he sneered, "there's a guild named The Children of the Sun, they-" he started.

"They're too much for you to handle, little boy." interrupted Phil, one of the younger priests.

A swift movement by the black dressed thief later and a wave of green showers was triggered as a dozen of steel clangs were heard. Phil shouted in pain before he too took out the shard and healed himself.

"As I was saying," Densetsu continued, as if nothing had happened, "the Children of the Sun have the power I need, but since none of them are here, I continued my search. I found another guild, and it seems they are a bunch of leechers. Living on the power of the Children, that guild is weaker at times, but still have enough channeling potential to serve my needs. The Full Moon guild is-"

"Extinct. Why don't you know that, kid!" Phil interrupted again. This time Densetsu continued without change.

"They are not dead, they hide under another name, _kid_. That's the problem with priests.. they heal their wounds at incredible speed." he said.

Densetsu walked towards the stairs leading up, turned around and continued.

"Warriors, on the other hand, don't. Two days ago, one of my scouts found a warrior shouting for his 'moon girl'. After defeating the fool, we captured and interrogated him, but he didn't let a single word out."

Densetsu snapped his fingers and two stone Gargoyles brought in a warrior. The armor was half missing, dented or fractured. He was covered in his own dried up blood and only half conscious.

They threw him on the floor, face first.

"He's a bit of a mess, but.." Densetsu said as he kicked the boy in the side to roll him on his back, "you'll recognize him all the same."

He was missing teeth and had a continuously bleeding head wound.

Every imprisoned person was shocked to see someone get that many wounds and live. Some of the girls were close to tears.

"Nobody?" asked Densetsu as he looked at his collection of priests.

"Then his miserable life will end here." he continued and grabbed a Steely and picked up the warrior by the hair.

Tsuki's shackles rambled as she tried to stop him from killing the boy.

"NOOO!" a holy arrow flew at the Steely and knocked it out Densetsu's hand. He smirked as he, like everyone else, looked at the person who shot the arrow.

"My my.. I believer I struck gold here. Right Philly boy?"

"Heh, I just fired that to piss you off. I've been trying to get holy magic to work in this castle ever since you dragged me here." Phil replied. He had the same smirk on his face as his opponent.

"So.. you dare challenge me?!" Densetsu growled. Phil's smirk did not leave his face. Iucounu watched as the air around Densetsu started to vibrate.

Phil fired another arrow, this time aimed dead center at the head. He let loose.

The thief grinned as the arrow flew right through and struck the stairs.

Phil was shocked to see his arrow fly clean through the thief's head, leaving him unharmed. Densetsu walked towards his cage.

"Wha-? How did you..?" he started, but said nothing more as the thief with the black hood stood in front of him.

His hand went clean through Phil's chest, leaving the young priest shocked in so much pain and agony that even his shower did not help much. Blood was pouring out both sides as the priest was slowly drowning in his own blood.

Everyone could only stand and watch as they were all chained in their cages, or to the walls. Eventually, Densetsu pulled his arm out and let Phil hang in his chains.

Phil was dead.

The vibrations stopped and Densetsu took a deep breath.

"Any other jokers who think they can screw with me?!" he shouted. He took Phil's cape to wipe his arm off.

Only the soft snickering of the priestesses was heard. They were devastated by the death of the only person who kept their spirits high in the past few days.

"That brat got what he deserved." he sneered at the group. Everyone was either saddened, or maddened by the loss of a friend.

Fingers were snapped again and Phil's cage was opened, his body taken out and dragged up by the Gargoyles. Two others came down and one growled something to Densetsu. His temper got a slight bit better as his anger left and so did he.

"Seems I have unwanted guests. Hmm.." he said and thought for a few seconds. "Let the other kid fix this up, let them summon Ergoth if needed. Go."

Densetsu turned around, grabbed one of his weapons and pointed it at the priests.

"I know one of you is this idiot's friend. So, " he started and let the Gargoyle chain the nearly lifeless warrior to the wall. "enjoy your view. The Gargoyle will help you remember your friendship, _moon girl_."

He walked up the stairs and left the dungeon.

The group looked at the stone monster as it gave a potion to the boy on the wall. The warrior gained full consciousness over a short period of time. He looked up through his blooded hair that hang disheveled in his face and slightly smiled. The Gargoyle 'reminded' the priests by slamming his stone fist in the boy's stomach, making him grunt in pain and cough up blood. He fell on his knees and hung weak in his chains, spat out blood and slowly raised his head.

"All these priests..." he started, "yet no-one to help me.."

The Gargoyle bashed the boy again, this time up his shoulder, causing pain to the boy. "Arghh!"

Still in pain, the boy spoke to someone "I shouldn't have said what I did when you told me.. you were one from them."

He leaned against the wall and continued "I sure screwed up this time... I've done you so much pain. Pain I should not- HNN!" The fist came down on his chest, leaving the weakened warrior without breath.

"Pain.. ughe.. I should not have ughe.. caused you. For I love you and I want... to be with you.."

He tried to stand up, but fell to wall, holding himself up with the chains he was locked up with.

"That's why.. your identity.. will die.. with me."

Stone, in the shape of a Gargoyle's fist, bashed against the chest of the boy. He collapsed and fell down, only held from the ground by the chains he was bound to.

Everyone looked around, saw some people in tears from the things the boy had said to his girl and wondered to who he had talked.

"Whoever he means, you're lucky with such a boy!" Tessa started.

"Yeah, not many are prepared to give their lives for others!" Rick continued.

"I am prepared!" said Iucounu, but he was ignored. The rumoring continued until the priests noticed someone hadn't said anything at all since Densetsu had left.

She hung her head down, covering her face with her hair. Everyone now looked at her as they listened to her sobs. When the sobbing stopped, they all knew she was going to say something as she raised her head. She had tears in her eyes; they rolled down her cheeks and dripped off her chin. Her face was red of emotion as she screamed his name.

"TEITEIKUUUUUUUUNNNN!!"


	16. Tsuki

Silence had fallen after that one word.

"You're..." started Rick.

"Yes. Are you all.. gonna hate me.. too now?" she said with a weeping voice.

"Just look what happened to that poor boy! Just cos he SHOUTED for you!" shouted Tessa.

Tsuki had sort of expected this, lowered her head again and did not counter Tessa's words.

--

It's not as if she had it easy from in life the start.

Born in the northern high sections of the Ellinian forest; the newborn's parents had a difficult situation, because if it were to be revealed that the high priestess of the moon had given birth... death would follow the child everywhere.

They gave their child a name, and only a first name, for their own last name had a bounty on it. They named her Tsuki, after themselves: Tsukasa and Kime, and placed her in a basket with a small note, in front of an orphanage in Ossyria.

In years that followed, Tsuki was fascinated by magic and the wonders of it. At school, she was pestered by others fro her ragged clothing. But she had no choice but to live without friends there, because the orphanage was not rich and could not afford better clothes.

In fact, when Tsuki was eleven, the building she called home was burnt to the ground and the orphans had no home anymore.

She saw her dream shattered in the ashes of the orphanage, and in the spur of the moment, in rage, sadness and despair, Tsuki wanted to get on the ship to Ellinia, Victoria Island.

She hid herself in a barrel and was hauled onboard.

It was the most frightening journey she had ever made, because that evening, the Crimson Balrogs had decided to raid the airship. Voices were shouting and swords and magic were used.

Thunder and lightning frightened the young Tsuki in the barrel as the fight continued.

Finally in Ellinia, she found out about Grendel's teaching and she hoped for education in magic.

After several days and tries to become one of Grendel's students, she was accepted. In return, though, since Tsuki had no money to pay for books, Grendel wanted her to become his errand runner. Tsuki was all too happy to get to do magic, that she accepted the terms, because she was going to be educated in magic by a very powerful master.

Not once did she fail to comply to his wishes and her progress was good too. In a few years, she had learned the basics of magic and completed the Cleric's study too.

Also, during those errands, Tsuki met quite an amount of people, like the Chief of Henesys, Perion's Headmaster Dances and many more. She even met someone she liked, and who liked her back.

It all seemed that her life ended up good after all.

One night though, on one of these errands, she met strange people in the forest of the Eternity Tree, in the small area around the Sleepywood Hotel.

they were looking for someone with her name! She didn't understand it, she had never even saw those two. Both of them were cloaked so she couldn't see their faces. They walked past her as they talked to each other.

"Oh Kime, where could our little girl be?" the man said.

"She's not here.. let's go Tsukasa dear." the woman replied.

By the time Tsuki realized that the couple were her parents, she turned around, but could no longer see them.

Tsuki ran around Sleepywood, but couldn't find them anymore.

"Mom.. Dad.." she snickered.

-

"Master Grendel, master Grendel! I think I met my parents!" Tsuki shouted when she returned to his home at the top of Ellinia town.

Grendel came down from his study.

"I heard them looking for someone with my name!" she was completely thrilled about the event.

When Tsuki had told her story, Grendel was shocked. The Moon Guild's leaders had a daughter.. and it was _her_!

"Master Grendel, what's wrong? Are they not my parents?" Tsuki asked when she saw Grendel's face.

Grendel explained the situation and the deeds of her parents. Tsuki's mood calmed down as she listened to her teacher. When he was done, Tsuki was devastated: her Kime had killed hundreds of people across the world together with Tsukasa, who had beat up several key persons and blackmailed them.

"Their total bounty is over 500 million, dear.. I wouldn't want you to become as criminal as they are." he had said.

"But.. they're my _parents_, sniff!" Tsuki had cried back.

Tears were rolling from her cheeks as Grendel tried to comfort her.

-

In the end, the world was informed that the devious couple had a child, named just like the kid Grendel had taken in.

It didn't take long for them to find out it really was that kid.

Grendel had no choice but to let her embark on a journey that would give her the same life her parents have.

He did allow her to take on his other self in the New Dimension, so she could practice her third book on her own.

Tsuki never had anything to do with the Moon Guild, yet everyone thought she had and that she was a trouble for the world.

To top it all, the one she liked and who liked her back said some horrible things about her in connection with the guild she never joined.

--

Tsuki stopped crying, wiped her tears away and looked at the boy chained to the wall. Then she started to talk..

"What do you know about me? You know nothing! Even the one thing you know.. isn't even the truth! Just because my parents aren't the best in the world, are you going to hate me? ME?!"

Tessa glared at Tsuki, who continued spilling it all.

"They dumped me right when I was born! How can you KNOW me!?" she shouted.


	17. He's Not

Hellz's hands held his wand shakily tight. His veins stood on the edge of bursting, because it took a lot of his power during the battle so far. It had been emitting a strong red light when he was fighting, but lately, it was slowly fading away.

"Time is running out.." he said softly to himself.

His opponents were exhausting him even more, but so was he exhausting them. Half of them were too tired to fight on and he had seen chance to either kill them, or knock them unconscious.

"Cursed priestess... if it wasn't for her, I'd be alone against that Lokima thief, and this time I'd be victorious."

She was still glaring at him, she never stopped doing that and it annoyed Hellz.

_Damn that stupid girl.. just 'cause I helped the maste__r get hold of that dumb priest_ he thought as he clenched his wand and fired an invisible attack at Lokima.

A cut appeared on her cheek as she barely dodged it. Slowly blood ran out.

As before, a green shower of unknown source washed away her new injury, leaving only the fresh blood. How he hated that occurrence, even now that its power is not as strong as it once was.

Enomis had repeatedly tried to apply Doom to her opponent, but for some reason, she could not succeed. Not only Doom, but all her holy magic failed. Healing the group was about all she could do to help.

"Tsk tsk. You're not allowed to help the enemy." a low, sneering voice whispered.

Before Enomis could turn to encounter the source, she was hit in the neck and fell before even setting an eye on her ambusher.

Even though several people turned their heads to see what caused the following thud and clang, the ambusher had vanished. Lokima was too busy to look back, but she saw it.

"You!" she shouted at the appeared, black clothed person who looked at her with blood red eyes. He mumbled something to Hellz who loosened his stance as he received the message, then looked at the faintest glow of his wand and nodded. Hellz looked at Lokima and her remaining members, grinned and then vanished with the other person. The bandit had recognized the cold blood red eyes as Densetsu's.

-

Angry fists slammed the ragged and dusty carpet.

Hellz could hear Lokima scream as he followed his master through the castle. It soon faded away though, and Hellz dared to ask Densetsu the status.

"Next stage. Use the girl to get Ergoth's power and give us the secret to life!" the answer was.

"So the girl showed her true face... she better be good, 'cause Ergoth's not useful without a resonator. He can't even move an inch without us!" Hellz continued.

"Don't worry," Hellz's master replied, "he'll get who he wanted. Now shut it!"

And with that the two rushed to the dungeon to fetch 'their girl', Tsuki.

-

A hand landed on her shoulder as comforting words came from the lips of the owner. The shoulder shook off the hand and was raised by standing up.

Kura looked worriedly as she still seemed angry.

And angry the bandit was, for the fight had ended without a winner, nor filled with revenge or information.

"This.. he.." Lokima spoke between teeth, "he left with his life, while we... we're shred! RAHHH!"

A painting on the nearest wall received a severe bash from the bandit's fist, ripping a square hole in the fabric.

"For Christ's sake, calm down! You're not helping anyone here! Devote your anger to the bastard chicken who ran away." Alex said, "Look, we're not exactly in the shape to follow them. Let's wait until everyone who got knocked out wakes up and continue."

"There's nine of us left in here," said Viper as he counted the people, "and tons of people are still fighting outside, so _we_ get a better chance!"

Lokima had calmed down enough to be reasonable.

"Fine.. we'll wait unt-" she stared as the doors where Hellz once stood suddenly opened and showed two Gargoyles dragging something with them.

As soon as both sides' eyes met, the battle was on.

Despite their condition, the human side was victorious.

Mostly because the Gargoyles were too stunned to react as fast as the band and that put them in a big disadvantage from the start.

As the smoldering piles of stone smoked thin threads, Alex looked a bit closer on the cargo the beasts had been dragging.

"My god.. he's still alive?!" he mumbled as he saw the state of the boy's body. "Daamn, Densetsu must've really wanted him to suffer. He's even broken a few ribs! This nasty stuff.. and I've seen bad wounds on monsters, but this.. this is _inhuman_!"

Kura had come to see too and she too was appalled by the boy's appearance.

"Is he... dead?" she asked carefully.

"That's the worst part," Alex answered, "he's not."


	18. The Plan

"Are you sure it's behind this door?"

"I saw four stone statues and a throne like thing in this room. Isn't that where Ergoth would be buried?"

"Wait up people!" Lokima yelled and walked towards Shikotei and Viper. "Shouldn't we go to the dungeon first to free the priests there? That would give us a bigger change to beat this guy." she continued.

"Not exactly, Lokima," started Enomis, "All I could do in the fight against Hellz, was Heal. All else simply failed me!"

The chief bandit in black looked down in deep thought.

"Hmm.. well uhm.." she eventually said, "Here's my plan..."

-

"...so that's why I kept the earrings on, despite everything." explained Shikotei as he followed Lokima who ran through the dungeon tunnels blindly.

She looked at some sort of round thing in her hand that gave her directions. Like a badge or something.

"Do you think the others are safe?" asked Shikotei, "that explosion like quake seemed heavy."

"Dunno.. hoping is all we can do.. ah!" Lokima said before she stopped.

"What is it" the boy asked.

"It's down here." she replied as she turned around, "but before we go in, you'll need some gear!"

She opened her Bag of Holding and took out a little red book, the size of two opened hands. She skipped through the middle pages, stopped and showed the book to Shikotei and asked if he was able to wield 'one of these things'. The answer was positive, the book was closed, put away and Lokima's hand took out a huge sword.

When the warrior unsheathed it, he held a double edged, spearheaded, five foot tall black sword in his hands. It had a spleen from the guard to halfway the blade and a sturdy hilt.

"Whoaa! Awesome!" he said in awe as he looked at the blade. "This one's like brand new! Where did you find it?"

"Does it matter? You've got one now.." she said as she stashed her bag away.

"I'm only borrowing this one, right? So when this is over-"

"You still have your own sword, though." Lokima interrupted, but the warrior shook his head in sorrow as he told Lokima where it was left behind by Densetsu's goons.

"Oh.. well.. I found that Doombringer at the snowy cliffs of El Nath, from Yeti and Pepe's. If you wanna, I could help hunting for one." the bandit said and the warrior thanked her for the offer and the weapon and thought it would be time to go down the hatch in the floor where they stood.

The hatch revealed stairs leading down in a curve. The black Pireta donning bandit gave the badge a last glance before clipping it back to her skirt.

Shikotei had tied his new sword's huge sheath to his back and followed Lokima with raised guard and Doombringer.

As the two took more and more steps, a noise grew louder. It was a noise with 'urk's, stomping and whistling sounds.

"I think they're fighting!" said Lokima and rushed down faster around the last corner. But not only were there priests, there were more of those Skeletons and Gargoyles.

"We're just in time to help!" shouted the warrior and bashed his sword into the nearest skeleton torso. The torso splintered and the owner lost its head in the process.

Within mere minutes the skeletons were done for, mostly because of the many Heal spells that disintegrate the undead.

The gargoyles, however, were tougher than the priests' only non-holy magic based attack. The Magic Claw merely increased the number of scratches the stone monsters carried, so it was up to the only warrior to reduce them to rubble. The dagger Lokima used couldn't cut deep enough to wound them effectively.

With the support of everyone, a brand new weapon and his will to see _her_ again, he remodeled every gargoyle into an artistic pile of dust, pebbles and small rocks.

Then the chains were broken, the locked smashed and the cage doors opened to free all the imprisoned people.

The bandit and a priest in the back had a lovers' reunion with hugs and kisses.

When all was done, the whole group went up the stairs with Iucounu, Lokima and Shikotei up first.

The priests all knew holy-based magic failed in this cursed castle so being unarmed didn't really matter much, because their Heal and Magic Claw still work.

"We'll interrogate Hellz or Densetsu later to tell us where our weapons are," said one of the priests, "so for now let's help the others of these two!"

-

The footsteps of Lokima and Shikotei had just faded when Viper said it would be wise to put on warm clothes and when the rest asked why, he said that the door was stone cold and faint fog came from underneath that chilled his toes.

All enforcing, protecting and empowering spells and skills were used and activated before opening the door.

At that exact moment, and earth, stone and bone shaking explosion happened and the white cold fog poured into the corridor outside and spread out.

The group didn't know what they saw as they looked at what scene was at Ergoth's throne. The guardian statues were broken, Ergoth was enraged by two people all dressed in black, both hooded and there was someone lying in the far left side of the room. That person was unconscious and lay on a ledge, under a small torch.

Despite the few torches, the entire room was freezing cold.

"It's like all the coldness of the world is gathered here." said Alex, "Brrr!"

"This priestess is rotten!" shouted Ergoth with a hissing and deep voice. "You promised me hatred in her!"

"But she's from that Moon Guild! They're hated throughout the world without them knowing why, so they hate everyone more than anything... she _is_ hatred!" shouted Densetsu back with a little unease.

"Then explain why her heart is filled with filthy love, _NOT_ grand hate!" was Ergoth's reply, but he ignored Densetsu's answer and said that he would take Densetsu's hatred instead. He raised his hand from underneath his robe and revealed a giant staff with a blood red, fist's size ruby on top. It donned bones and skulls and it wasn't the straightest of staffs.

Then he hissed something and aimed the staff at Densetsu, who vanished after knowing what was going to happen next. Somehow, though, the staff changed its aim as fast as the shadower was moving, as if locked onto its target.

When Ergoth was done with his hissing and the staff stopped moving, a small pile of robes fell to the dark stone floor, into the cold fog.

Enomis couldn't suppress an "Eep!" and ended the silence that fell after the flapper of the robes.

Until now, everyone had just stopped in the door opening and watched the scene, but now that the 'eep' had fallen, the group was noticed and Ergoth and Hellz turned their attention to attack the newcomers.

"Uh-ohh..." said Fury and he and his group all raised their weapons, ready for the big fight for a white Christmas, for snow and ice across the cliffs of El Nath, for Christmas Eve and above all, for the living's sakes!


	19. Reunion

A group, lead by a chief bandit, or rather 'bandit' as she found 'chief' too boy-ish and a fighter who planned to become a crusader very soon, followed by their party and all the imprisoned, but freed again priests ran through the dark of a cursed castle in the ruins of a recently uncovered Sheranian, or as the true name says, Babylon.

They ran to find a way to the throne room. In that room, their friends and fellow living were fighting against Ergoth, undead Count of the castle and bent on the dictatorship of Victoria Island and undead immortality, and against Hellz, a simple, yet powerful underling.

Densetsu was no longer a threat, for his life was taken by Ergoth, who he thought to be his underling. He was stripped from his life energy because the priestess Ergoth needed was the owner of a pure heart, instead of the dark and hating one he expected.

"Densetsu's dark heart was excellent! I feel better than in centuries!" thundered Ergoth.

Both Hellz and the Count had the same evil smirk on their faces when they turned their attention to the small group of humans after hearing Enomis' 'eep'.

"Test your renewed powers, master." Hellz mumbled as their welcome party drew weapons.

-

"We're completely _lost_ aren't we..?" said Lucy, the priestess who specialized herself in Doom and Seal.

"Nope..." said Lokima, "we just don't know where we wanna go." her voice was drenched in sarcasm.

"Oh.. okay.. I mean.. just saying.." mumbled Lucy as her voice faded in the crowd. Lucy wasn't exactly the brightest of people, but she understood her job as Priestess. And she was perfectly fine with that.

After more senseless running, going up and down several stairs and passing many tunnel junctions, Lucy noticed a foggy white area left at the previous junction.

"Hey, um.. guys!?" she shouted ahead to the rest.

"I think there's something you should see!" she shouted and with that she called the group onto the right path.

They followed the fog upstream all the way to the door it came from.

The second they saw the door, it flew open to the outside and a person sort of.. flew out and bashed against the opposite wall. Than a second, third, fourth and a whole bunch more were flying out the door.

In the meantime, the fog was retreating rapidly and by the time the last person had flown out, the doors were closing and the last shred of fog just slipped between the last spleens as the doors closed with a deafening bang.

One of the flying persons had stood up again and slammed his fists on the door and fruitlessly tried to open it.

When Shikotei's party arrived at the door, they knew who the others were, namely Fury's group.

"Ergoth threw us out to do some 'refurbishment' or something..." Fury said, "including this girl here. Does anyone know her?" he pointed at a young girl, all covered in blue clothes; from a slightly ragged blue Moonlight to blue Lorins and blue Neli shoes.

Shikotei looked and recognized the priestess as "Tsu-" he started before being rudely interrupted by Tessa.

"It's that Moon guild twit! _She's_ the cause of all this trouble!" she sneered. After spilling the beans, Tessa went into the offence while Shikotei went defensive; desperately trying to defend the one for who he got beaten up an inch from his life.

But it was hopeless.

"No wonder she's all blue! Doesn't even know that white is the way to go." said Rick.

"I don't care about the things she doesn't know," repelled Shikotei, "only about the things she _does_ know!"

Or things like "she thinks she's all high and mighty!" followed by a very unpleasant name.

The ranting went on and on, even when Fury ordered calming down. After repetitive failures, Fury lost his patience and used his shouting Tiger to enforce his demand.

"Good.. now if I may." Fury said after the silence fell again and waited for no reply. "Good. I dunno who this girl exactly is, but I do know one thing," he continued, "Ergoth said something to Densetsu about this girl before he killed him." the group behind him all muttered in agreement.

"Ergoth had no reason to lie so I'll repeat his words... 'this priestess is rotten', to wh-"

"See?! I _knew_ it, she i-" blabbered Tessa.

"SILENCE!!" roared Fury's voice, "I'm _not_ done!"

Shikotei's attention was pinned to Fury, who continued with Densetsu's reply.

"To which Ergoth said to Densetsu 'then explain why her heart is filled with disgusting love instead of wonderful hate'..." Fury looked at the priests who hated the girl for being connected to a forbidden guild.

"It's 'filthy love' and 'grand hate'." said a soft voice from behind Alex, who stood closest to the wall opposite the door.

Everyone turned their attention to the voice, but only Shikotei shouted the owner's name before turning around and running through the group.

"Tsukiiii! You're okay!" he shouted right before wrapping his arms around her shoulders. She returned the wrap and turned it into one of the most intimate of hugs. Tears started to form under their eyes as they realized their happiness.

Nobody said a word.

"A-are you hurt anywhere?" he asked worriedly.

"I'm a priest, you dummy..(!)" she replied.

"I'm sorry about the things I said back in Ellinia, no longer care about your guild. I only care about you!" he said, but before she could say 'I forgave you already', he continued, "I should have listened better to you! The moment after you ran away I realized that I said something I didn't mean, so when they captured and tortured me, I didn't say a word because I would never forgive myself if I hurt you again, but when I was brought to your cell I ended up hurting you after all and-" Tsuki covered his lips with her hand shushed him gently.

"It's okay, dear.. I understand and I forgive you." she said softly and kissed him on the cheek before hugging him again.

"But I-" Shikotei started with blurry eyes.

"It's okay now."

"_I'll never leave you_!" he said with teary eyes and clung to her.

"I _love_ you.." said Shikotei with a tiny voice, one only Tsuki could hear.

"I love you too... Teikun." she said.

"One thing still bothers me, Tessa." Viper said as he tore his eyes off the couple. "If Tsuki's soo evil, how come Ergoth, _count evil_, didn't want her?" He paused his continuation to let Tessa come up with an answer.

She didn't.

"'Cause she ain't evil!" he blurted, "Besides, why would an evil person comfort someone who is at a fragile moment? Leave the girl alone, 'kay?"

The doors creaked and, as everyone in the hallway directed their eyes towards them, they cracked, broke, eventually splintered and burst into nothing more than dust, slowly falling down and veiling the sight beyond.

"Oh yeah.. almost forgot.. there's our stress release exam." said Fury, "forget the quarrels! _Kill this sucker_!"


	20. Last Meeting

"Refurbished indeed! This room is completely different from that cold dark we were thrown out of." said Alex.

The walls were no longer covered in damp cloths, half rotten away, but with blue and gold carpets with a strange weapon on them. Like a family weapon, _Ergoth's_ weapon.

The room itself had become longer in the back, had wooden supports, candles in the wall's cavities, a chandelier at each end of the ceiling and a long red carpet. It lead from the door all the way to the throne was standing, guarded by a line of four statues: two knight's torsos on a pole each, both carrying a runic sword and two lions with flaming stone manes. Both lions were in attack position, while the knights held their swords in a guarded manner.

Ergoth's henchy Hellz, stood in the middle of the room on the carpet. He was dressed in dark blue and black, still with the hood on.

Ergoth himself sat on the golden throne, wearing the same huge gold lined red mantle. It covered most of his skeletal body, but still revealed his skully face, with its black and empty eye sockets, and his boney hands. He held the staff in plain sight, with it's crystal pointing at the ceiling.

It looked like he was going to let Hellz finish this and spectate humanity quarrel.

"Did anyone else notice the fog is gone?" whispered Kura.

"No need to whisper, young girl." hissed Ergoth from his throne. "All I needed for my powers to return to me, were freedom, given by Densetsu's greedy hands, a pure hatred, also taken from Densetsu, and coldness of worldly scale, taken by me."

"So.. you absorbed the cold fog once you had Densetsu's evil heart. That fog represented the snow and ice of El Nath and its surroundings! it was you _all along_!"

"Hmm.. clever little girl... too bad your heart's useless. Hellz, take out this trash; they stink."

Tsuki stepped forward out the group and looked over her shoulder.

"He's _mine_..." she grunted, no longer using the soft voice she had before. This time, she was determined to get revenge on the horrid she was put through by Hellz and Densetsu. His death by Ergoth had enraged her, because now he can't PAY for his crimes anymore.

"What?!" yelled Lokima and she stared at the girl, "We've had enormous trouble with this guy, and you think you can take him one-on-one?!"

"Lokima, um," Shikotei started as he pulled her sleeve a bit, "I've never seen her this determined or angry, and you should know that it took her only 7 years to get this good!"

"Seven years as a priestess?" asked Tessa.

"No, seven years to get from total leek to halfway between priestess and bishop!" said the warrior proud. "Grendell was her personal teacher from the age of 11 and all she did was practice and errands for him. No exceptions."

"Well," started the bandit, "I took 8 years from thief to chief bandit, so what's the big deal?" but all the priests and priestesses looked at her, doubting her statement.

"Lokima.. a normal time for a priest to be upranked to bishop is 10 years... Tsuki took only 7 from bottom to half bishop, which should've taken at least 15!" said Iucounu, "she's pretty amazing..."

During the little talking there was, Tsuki had stepped forward and taken out a blue stone with white markings on it. It had started to glow and hovered on its own as the priestess' conjuration continued.

Within seconds, the faint glow engulfed the entire room in a bright white and the stone changed its rocky shape into...

"OH MY GOD! She can _do_ that ?!" mumbled Rick. "Summoning spells are the hardest in the book, and require the right balance between magic and speech. Any mistake leads to either an explosion that would knock you off your feet, or a smaller result... but hers..."

The flash ended and there it stood.. or flew.

Brilliant blue eyes, horns the size of two fists, two pairs of razor sharp claws and teeth that look like they'll eat even Balrogs. It had a light blue skin, with a white belly and its height.. as tall as a large man it towered above Tsuki's small existence.

"This..." she said as she showed her dragon to Hellz, "This is my dragon, Nasher. Nasher, meet _lunch_!" and pointed at Hellz, who got an awkward feeling. "Hellz, meet death."

The blue dragon flapped its wings and roared through the air like a spear thrown by a Dark Knight at the top of his game towards Hellz, who had no time to even blink before being engulfed in the fierce holy flames of the dragon's burst.

When the smoke no longer hid the target, all that was left of Hellz were his black, crispy bones.

"Au..." he sneered angry, before raising his hand and flicking it while pointing at Tsuki.

Nothing happened though.

"Am I seeing stuff?" Tessa muttered as the whole group stared with amaze at Hellz's skeletal appearance.

"Then I'm also seeing stuff.." said Kura. "What the hell is he?! Was he even human when we fought him?!"

When Hellz's remains looked at hand that was supposed to hold his wand, it was missing the wand. It had been burnt to a crisp along with his clothes.

He didn't see that Tsuki's dragon, Nasher had made a circle and now slammed straight into the skeleton. The bones flew towards alls sides as the sheer impact dismembered Hellz. Nasher squashed the skull between his amazing set of teeth.

The determined, cold look in Tsuki's azure blue eyes vanished like snow from the sun as Nasher landed next to her and wanted to be petted.

"Good boy, Nasher!" she said with her usual soft voice as she petted her 'pet' on the head and crushed one of Hellz's bones with a stamp of her foot.

"The fog stopped out holy magic, because the world's coldness was too powerful, yet brittle when compacted. Ergoth is _not_ going to ruin this day with his stupid plans!" Tsuki shouted with a slight dark tone.

"Let's break all of his bones!"


	21. Like His Staff?

"NOTHING!" shouted Fury enraged. "_Nothing_ works against him! He's regained all that we chopped and broke off and he's just _laughing_! RAHH!!"

They've been fighting forever and the only things that are truly over, are the stone statues Ergoth reactivated once the talking passed.

Throwing stars became useless when they were deflected or caught by Ergoth, broken bones were seamlessly fixed and missing arms, legs and bones were no problem either.

Sure Ergoth was weakened, but still it would take at least four times longer to finish him. In that time, nobody would have the stamina to stand.

"I'm sure the sun's low right now... 'cause I'm getting tired. My Sunrise is getting heavier the longer I fight with it." grumbled Fury. "Isn't there _something_ we can still try? Something we haven't done before? Like... like..."

"Like breaking his staff?" proposed Kura before firing another arrow. It only made another hole in Ergoth's cape before splintering to smithereens against the wall behind it.

"Been trying since we started. It's too fast!"

"Yeah.. like insanely fast, how it followed that nasty shadower when my eyes couldn't even follow!" mumbled the crusader.

"Tsuki!" he then shouted and looked around.

She was busy firing holy arrows, giving orders to her dragon and healing people. He ran around the back to her and asked the question that bugged him a while now.

"Tsuki, I'm sorry to ask this, but..." he started, "d'you know any spells or magic.. related to.. um.. the Moon guild?"

The mentioning of that particular guild made her expression change.

"I was never part of that." she said rigidly. "But... I-"

"Is it powerful?" asked Fury seriously and turned her around to see her face to face.

She averted her eyes.

"Enough to blow up Master Grendell's house at my accidental first try. He made me swear never to use that kind of magic again..." she said.

"That was _you_?!" Fury said in disbelief. "Whoa!"

Tsuki looked at Fury and saw he had a determined expression written all over his face.

"Use it.." he said.

"Wh- NO WAY! It's too dangerous!"

"Look it's obviously one of your special skills.. the heart's or the inherited. "I'm guessing inherited, because of the skill you had with it... but USE IT!" I'll take old man's blabber punishment. _Please_!"

The priestess seemed to have thought about it because the look in her eyes... they said she realized it was the only option.

"First, the dangers: one, this could kill us all. Two, I need _utter_ concentration, one blink wrong and everything goes sky-high. Three, it's dark and unholy magic and because I've used holy much more than dark, this could kill me or bring me close to death. Unless you have an unholy item in your possession... to use as a medium." she said and looked at the crusader's weapon.

"My... my Sunrise?" he said and held it firmly in his hand.

"Your Devil's Sunrise would do." she said with a small voice, "but don't worry! If all goes well, it will remain the same. Remember, I'm risking my _life_ here, you only a weapon." Tsuki continued.

She had a point there and so the last hope began forming.

"She better not wreck my baby(!)" Fury muttered as he took out an older looking Doombringer. "We're gonna have to do some more fighting after all, Doom."

"Shik, Nasher!" yelled Tsuki. Both of them came after the calling. "I need you two to protect me and keep me from being disturbed. This is _very important_, ok?"

"Yes, dear!" Shikotei answered, while the dragon nodded and landed between her and Ergoth. The fighter turned around and took two steps before holding his sword in such a position that he could defend from all of his sides.

As time passed, and the time limit for the dragon had passed, Shikotei had to keep Tsuki undisturbed by himself. It made him feel kinda good. If he had glanced over his shoulder, he would have noticed that Tsuki was creating tiny black orbs in the palm of her hands.

Pure Dark Energy... this room was filled with it. He would have seen the priestess creating the same orbs at the sword's end. The Devil's Sunrise, the most unholy sword of all, and it created Dark Energy spheres.

Tsuki's mumbling was unheard to any ear, only her own. She had to do it soft as possible to keep the energy small.

When Tsuki thought she could control the sphere's path enough, she stood up and spoke the mumbling out loud.

It wasn't even a language, but a sphere at the tip of the Sunrise started to grow. It grew as the incantation lengthened until it was the size of two Crimson Balls. That means twice the size of a human head!

Tsuki ordered everyone to stop their attacks and get behind her. Slowly the noise faded and Tsuki spun the sword around with her body and released the giant black, sizzling orb and shouted:

"Black side of the moon, convey Ergoth to the Shadowlands!"

Ergoth's staff pointed at the sphere as he yelled:

"Come to me, Black powder of red-eyed stone!"

Upon impact with the energy, the staff's crimson red ruby melted and engulfed it in its core.

"Whaat?! No explosion or anything?" Alex said as he gazed with open mouth at Ergoth.

Fury looked at Tsuki and muttered:

"I thought you said-"

"I know what I said, Fury." grunted Tsuki, "Just.. w-"

"That's it.. we're doomed!" yelled Tessa as Fury took his weapon from Tsuki's hand.

"Whahaha! Mwaahaahaaaaa!" laughed the count as he observed the black speck in his ruby.

"Muahahaawahaawahawahaaaa!!"


	22. They Don't Know

Most people had ceased their aid in the battling, because there wasn't much to fight against anymore. The largest hordes of skeletal enemies were defeated.

Mostly because the human forces used the healing skill of the numerous clerics to disintegrate the remains of each butchered skeleton.

All that was left of the countless boney foes, were a few groups of maybe a dozen, spread out all over the field. They weren't too hard to handle, so many were sitting down, catching their breaths and looking satisfied at the as good as won battle.

Yes, the outdoor battle was looking better than the fight against a single Count, namely Count Ergoth.

When said Count had finished laughing at Tsuki's poor attempt to blow him up, he felt confident about ruling the area once more. This time, he'd demand his human subjects to continue his experiments, rather than having to buy or sneak them in.

"So..." he hissed slowly as he lowered the ruby staff, "That's the last resort? A mere energy clod?"

Nobody said a word as all eyes were on Tsuki. All of them looking in disbelief.

Her own eyes were not looking in disbelief; they looked determined, as if she hadn't given up yet.

One more, but smaller energy orb hovered slowly close to the ground towards Ergoth's throne.

"Heh," the one standing in front of the throne said as the ruby was lowered to the ground.

"Did you really think... that this tiny _speck_ could do better than the first?!" his ruby engulfed the minuscule black dot and 'ate' it like before.

"_THIS_..." he continued as he generated his own dark energy Rog Orb, "is how you should do it!" and threw a head's size orb at Tsuki.

Kura's superb reflexes and accuracy made the Orb explode with the help or an Arrow Bomb.

It exploded about two spear lengths away, but was powerful enough to send everyone flying against the wall and shake the castle on its foundations. Dust and sand came down from the ceiling and covered the ones below in a fine white.

When the dust had settles and everyone's lunges were coughed dust-free, there weren't many who didn't have that look in their eyes that showed a fighting spirit.

Shikotei, the first to get his senses back, stormed at Ergoth, stabbed the malicious orb thrown at him from the side and was shocked to see what happened next.

In the blink of an eye, it had split into countless smaller spheres, spread around his stretched arm and by the time he landed on his other foot the spheres had spread all around his body.

The next moments could be described as the worst case.

The warrior's sword fell on the red carpet and the owner followed his blade after losing consciousness as Tsuki shouted his name.

Lokima asked for coverage and as Tsuki fired arrow after arrow , the bandit threw a smoke bomb and retrieved the armorless warrior and the blade.

The tiny twinkle that had housed in the people's hearts now vanished after seeing the armor of the boy completely torn off, leaving burn marks on many places.

"Good to see my power is back to its full!" shouted Ergoth in bliss.

"We were too late. The moment Densetsu died, we were too late!" Said Fury and most others nodded in agreement. When the crusader saw Tsuki panting heavily, he shouted the escape plan.

"Rruuunnn!!"

While the priests healed Shikotei's wounds, Tsuki gave Ergoth a final glance and Kura, Viper and Alex kept him busy with long distance attacks. None of them had any effect but to give Ergoth a reason to laugh wildly as he stopped the pitiful attempts with his own, causing more and more smoke to form.

The gang ran out the Count's quarters, out through the hall where Hellz had stood, past the once sealed door and the towers' hallway. They went past the fountain with black water that radiated a foul stench, bashed through Black Wraiths and left skeletons behind as piled or scattered bones.

Nothing could keep the small and only alive humans in the castle from leaving its grounds through the main gate.

Except Ergoth, but he was not showing himself beyond the castle walls, which the group left far behind them. Once past the enchanted gateway, where they met Hellz for the first time, the Onyx Earrings disintegrated to dust and there was no going back.

"So.. that's it?" said Nick. His gown was white with blue dashes on it. "We just ran away from the _only _task only_ we_ could do... who is going to stop Ergoth now?"

He stopped running and looked back at the castle.

The blackened sky above hid the sun as if the night reigned over the heavens. It was Christmas, yet not a single speck of snow had fallen in weeks.

The sun would hang low in the sky, if it weren't for the darkness to take away the red evening.

"We tried all we could," said Alex, "but it simply required more strength than we could find."

"It's as Alex says," the all-blue bowman said, "we need someone with more power to help us."

"They are all in Ludibrium or Leafre! That's weeks from Victoria! They're probably not even _aware_ of the situation we're in here! We're on our own."

"What I don't understand, is why your attack didn't work. I thought you said it was going to blow up half the castle!" Tessa said as she looked at Tsuki in disappointment.

Said girl didn't answer, and her silence lowered morale even more. Soon after, the others fell silent, not knowing what to do now that Ergoth had won.

Tsuki was looking after Shikotei. He was still unconscious from the blasts that Ergoth's attacks had caused. Even though his wounds were closed, healed and his body in good shape, Tsuki couldn't leave his side.

_"Your identity will die with me.." he had said..._ she thought as her fingers went through the warrior's short hair.

The reason for the hold up, was so the group could recuperate from the constant attacking and to think of a way to end this. Tsuki's reason was to increase her mana pool again before finishing what she started.

When Shikotei opened his eyes with a grunt of pain, he looked at Tsuki's teary smile.

It wasn't until he asked why she cried that she noticed he had awakened. As she wiped the tears away, she answered.

"I was just thinking about what you said back in the dungeon."

"I meant every word, Tsu..." he smiled faintly. "So did you get rid of Ergoth yet? So you're everyone's heroine?" Shikotei asked softly, still resting his head on Tsuki's lap.

She shook her head.

"Nuhu.. I haven't done that yet.."

"Oh.. so they don't know that the speck you fired had the fierceness of a butterfly, yet the power of an earthquake? Power that would crack open that ruby, let out all the coldness of the world and suck in the nearest dark force?"

"Nope."


	23. What Do We Do Now?

The evening had fallen, but the clouds over Sheranian were still ever present.

Athena looked out the window of Dances' house. She was worried about the fighting that happened just a short walk away. Dances and Grendell were still arguing why the warrior wasn't going to aid in the battle, even though he wanted. Kerin was nowhere in sight, as usually the case.

Grendell didn't want any of the four of them to aid in the battle. Dances knew that. He also knew that it's not easy to win an argument against Grendell, so to pass the time, he tried.

"If one of us perishes, who is going to train the people? There is nobody with the expertise like ours." Grendell said.

"You say nobody has our expertise, then how is anyone going to beat us in a fair fight?" Dances argued.

Grendel already had his answer ready, and pronounced it.

"None of us has an heir, or an apprentice with all our knowledge. We cannot go into a reckless battle!"

The arguing continued relentlessly, so Athena eventually had enough and walked out the door.

_Sometimes, they can be real kids.._ she thought and decided to go to the top of Perion for a better view.

The small light from the candle, the now present silence and the windless evening calmed her mood down as she set her eyes at the Sheranian castle again.

Her thoughts wandered and her sightings became a stare at nothing. Few people knew what she could possibly think about after hearing Grendell's last counterargument.

Athena's daydream ended when a sudden wind gust blew the candle out. Soon after, the gust was gone as fast as it came.

Now awake and sharp again, the archer gazed at the enormous ray of red light going straight into the dark clouds above Sheranian.

Athena was amazed to find out that the light came from the castle where the battle was being decided. Thinking that this had happened in their favor, she went down fast to tell the others.

-

Poor Rooney looked at the empty streets of Happyville one last time. The authorities of the town had decided to cancel the planned events of this year's festival. The incidents that had happened before the days the official opening would be concerned them too much. And without snow, who could make a snowman? Or decorate the enormous trees?

Rooney did understand all that, but it still saddened her heart to see only the emptiness left. No joy, happiness or a good time in Happyville this year.

Few of the officials wanted to cancel the events, but it was just the right thing to do.

How she enjoyed being here, when the crowds were having the annual snow-fights, the biggest snowman competition, the prettiest tree. None of all that would be before her eyes this year, because that was all canceled.

As she looked up to the stars she saw one blinking at her. The small girl smiled a little bit and wished that the whole thing would be over soon. As she closed her eyes and made her wish, a small dot was shooting through the night sky, but gone after Rooney opened her eyes again.

She gave the town one last glance and left for Ellinia the blink of an eye. Once back in her home, Rooney closed the door and called it a day.

What she didn't notice was a strong red glow came from underneath her front door. Light that came from the castle of Sheranian. Light that could mean that somewhere, her wish was heard, and perhaps even granted.

The news of the events at the source of the light would not reach her ears until the next day.

-

People started to realize how grave the situation was. Even the ones who had the biggest confidence at the beginning of the day, now had their spirits lowered by the defeat.

"How will this day be remembered?" asked Alex. "Will we have helped in the battle, or will we be just the ones who did nothing to prevent this?"

Nobody said a word. Many lowered their heads in sadness.

"We can't just.. sit here!" Alex continued, but he too had no idea what else to do.

"What do you expect us to do?" said Lucy, "Those earrings are gone, so we can't go back anymore."

Many agreed, or looked at the castle gate. It looked so solid and impenetrable, and the chance on defeating Ergoth looked slimmer than ever. Nobody could come up with a plan, because nobody knew how to get in the castle without those purple pieces of stone.

A small discussion started to take shape, and grow into an argument. The argument's subject changed from how to defeat Ergoth to how they couldn't defeat Densetsu of Hellz, then moved even further back in time to the point where the subject changed into who to blame. Eventually, the discussion was about the Moon guild and their dark magics, and outlawed actions.

Nobody cared that some people weren't to blame for the actions they never committed or had any relation to, but because the discussion had high emotions, eventually Tsuki was blamed for the whole ordeal and people started to agree. Slowly, an angry mob was forming against Tsuki, and soon the emotions of Tessa and her anger against Tsuki made her want to ravage the scapegoat.

Everyone now turned to Tsuki, but.. she wasn't there anymore. The fighter who was with her was gone as well.

Somehow, nobody noticed that they left. They weren't even in sight anymore!

"Well good riddance!" growled Tessa.

"To bad rubbish." added Rick.

Some mumbling and agreeing opinions were spoken, but Alex still had his doubts.

"Come on, at least they tried to help.." he said, "rather than running away as soon as they could."

Now that he had the chance to speak, he took it and went into an all-out rant.

"You guys can only see the bad sides of things, you can't understand what they had to go through!"

"Even if they didn't try to help us to instantly kill Ergoth with some illegal, banned or whatever magic, they're still human beings! At least say these kind of things to their faces, rather than pumping up your own ego."

Once Alex was done, a couple of people agreed with him, even if it was just about one thing.

The rest just stared at the ground, except Tessa, she was still pissed off.

"There's nothing we can do now, we should get some information about the situation outside the castle. We know Ergoth's still alive, but that Densetsu and the traitor Hellz have perished." Viper suggested.

Lucy turned to him and asked what he wanted the Wisemen to do about it.

"Well, if word is spread that this castle is unsafe, but that certain dangerous people are dead, maybe they can lay a stronger barrier around this place and keep Ergoth at bay in his own land.." he said, "Just a thought."

"There's not much we can do now anyway, so I agree with the blue guy." Kura's response was.

"Let those two be wherever they are.. maybe they'll never bug us again, maybe they're planning something, who knows. All I know is that I'm not gonna spend another minute in this desolated graveyard.

As Kura turned around, a blinding red light suddenly sprouted from the center of the castle. It formed a thick beam of energy that penetrated the pitch black clouds that were covering the night sky.

The light was closely followed by a loud and deep rumbling, like the thunderstrike of a lightning crack. The exhausted group was temporarily stunned by the shockwave that the rumble caused and people were trying to find their balance. Many failed, because they simply didn't have the energy.

"What the hell is going on?!" shouted Viper, trying to be heard through the deep rumble as he stood up and looked with eyes of disbelief at the castle.


	24. Now We Wait

The entire structure stood in the center of the bright red beam. Rocks were trembling as the earth beneath their very feet was shaking. The air surrounding them gained energy and soon a wind started to blow, quickly changing into a strong gale. Sand now started to fill the skies as the grains were picked up and flung around. Slowly the situation turned dangerous as suffocation became a serious issue with all the sand in the air.

"We.. gotta.. go!" coughed Alex as he covered his face from the sand. He gestured to the others to move away.

The sandstorm lost strength the further the remaining seven groupmembers were from the castle. At some point, they could look back without protection and they saw what truly happened.

Sand was flying all over the castle, as the only indication that there _was_ a castle was the energy beam. I was reduced to a faint red glow by the storm. Viper could see chunks of stone flying around in the sand as the magic gate disintegrated and was eventually swallowed whole. The friction caused by the grains of sand generated stress that was released in flashes of light as lightning learned its way from the sand to the dark clouds above. It was a scary scene, seeing electricity going up into the sky, rather than come crashing down to earth.

The deep rumbling sound was slowly dying out as the storm lost power. It had raged on long enough to allow people to gather strength again. But what these people saw, was not something that had cause for celebration, as the Sheranian castle stood before them. Its sight had not been seen since it was buried all these ages ago.

Somehow, Ergoth had used his powers to claim back the pieces of his castle that time had stolen. The gates were returned to full glory as well. All this spelled disaster, since it was proof that Ergoth had really gained power again.

For a moment, the scene was creepily silent. The wind had stopped; the sand was resting on the ground once again; even the clouds were not moving. The red beam of energy had retreated to the castle.

Only one thing broke the eerie silence. But even that did not carry good news as Ergoth's diabolic laughter was heard from the castle, across echoing the field.

-

When Athena returned to the previously arguing duo, they had also noticed the outburst.

"What do you think this could have meant, Grendell? What happened at Sheranian?" asked Athena.

Grendell turned around and looked grim at her. He said that the event was evil of nature, as the magic he felt at that moment was unpleasant to say the least.

"We can only hope that nobody was too close to the source, as it would definitely result in.. something unwanted."

"I don't like the sight of it." mumbled Dances. "It's too wicked. Bah."

Grendell once again sunk deep in his mind.

"Nobody was close to the source." whispered a voice from the other end of the room. From out a dark corner two eyes were barely visible.

"Kerin? How d-" Athena started.

"Athena, you may have keen eyes, but even you cannot see that far and still see detail." he interrupted. "Also, some things are better known through intuition, communication and spying."

"Now, how about Grendell making that old barrier a bit newer?" Kerin whispered before letting silence and darkness take his place. He was gone, probably to gather more intel on the recent event.

"He still creeps me out." Athena shuddered.

"I heard that."

_Ack!_

-

"Is everyone okay?" asked Viper to the other people lying in the sand. Some were half buried by it.

Kura, Alex, Ricky and Enomis replied immediately. They had covered their faces with pieces of clothing, so no sand could get in. The others were still trying to get up or spit out sand.

Fury growled as a sign while Tessa, Lokima and David just nodded as they came closer to form a group again. Rick, Lucy and Gary joined in several moments later. Iucounu was the last one to join the group.

"I've had a bit of a peek at the new structure." he said. "It's the same as it was when it was built, or at least according to the archeologists that drew the maps back in the town."

"Then it seems we just don't have the strength to put him back in his prison anymore." said Enomis. "He has regained too much of his powers for us to make a difference."

"Are you saying we outta message the other countries for help?" Tessa asked. She continued by defining it as a viable solution to the current situation.

"Yes, they might have the edge we do not have. But it will take time, and that is still something we're lacking." Kura said. "Is there not something we can do to, say, strengthen the barrier around this area?"

"You aim to seal the evil within a reasonably small field, like the solution of a year ago? That should work for now."

"There's no shame in not succeeding a mission for which we did not have sufficient abilities." said Kura wise.

"That may be, but it still pisses me off not to be able to do better!" growled Fury. "I wanna kick his bony ass into tiny bits! I wanna smite his skull and bury the pieces everywhere. I wanna hang a mirror in his coffin so he can see his own skeleton fall to pieces!"

"Okay, maybe no mirror." Fury mumbled after some weird stares.

The twelve remaining persons left their positions in the sand, showed their backs to the castle and started walking.

"I wonder how the battle has been going outside the castle.." Lucy wondered.

"Bet'cha they're long done." said Ricky with confidence. "That can't have been as long as we had been fighting."

"Speaking of battles, I'm pretty fatigued. Even after that short rest." puffed Enomis. "I don't think I've ever had to fight _that_ long against a single enemy."

"Me neither, not even fighting endless zombies just outside the entrance to the mines in the mountains north of El Nath." Tessa agreed.

-

"He did a pretty good job on restoring the ruined remains of his castle, didn't he?" he said.

"Too bad it'll be all for nuthin' when I make my move." she said.

The two looked at a small group of people moving towards the ring of holy ground. They were preceded by a whole army of warriors, mages and other adventurers.

"They're still a bit too close to be out of harm's way." she concluded.

"But then again, so are we. I'm glad it ended this way, with the two of us here. Alone." he continued. "I still can't believe they didn't even notice us leaving."

"We even said 'byebye'. What else were we to expect from them while they were arguing like children?" her tone was quite sarcastic. "Anyway, let's depart from here. That skeleton will get his punishment for messing with me!"

"Sweety, calm down. I know you're quite pumped up because of what words _she_ spawned, but please don't be reckless."

"NO! That stupid wench doesn't know _what_ she's talking about! She deserves to be mol-mmm." she continued before being silenced by the lips of the boy.

The moment these separated again, she thanked him, saying she needs him to keep her stable for the time being.

"I hope my love for you will keep you from hurting yourself. Both mentally and physically." he smiled.

When she smiled back and lips met and separated again, he took her hand and said it was better to get a move on.

"When Grendell reinforces the barrier, unholy power will be weakened enough for mine to prevail. With a little luck, it'll all end at that moment." she said. "And then we'll be free to roam this world!"

"Then.. may I take you to Ludibrium? I hear it is haunted by spirits of teddy bears and pirates!"

"Ooohh! I'll be looking forward to it, hun!"


	25. Past, Present and Future

**January 25th, the following year**

A small dot appeared on the horizon along with the sun. The view was, as always from the Ellinia station, splendid. Seas stretching far across, but still revealed the small chain of islands to the south-west. Florina was still asleep at this hour.

Time passed on and the dot before the sun came closer to the station. After enough time, the dot was large enough to be described as one of the vessels that takes and brings travelers to the town Orbis. The large wooden vessel uses special engines to stay afloat in the air and travels with the wind. Soon enough figures could be distinguished, but that was all, because most of them were cloaked, or donning longcoats.

The first people responding to the call for aid were on their last journey.

While the ship's captain was trying to anchor the ship, the passengers waited patiently for the plank to be placed. Although, that was not the case for every one of them. Several jumped off as soon as the ship was close enough to the wooden station and sped off towards the city.

"Oooi! That's not safe ya know!" yelled, Cherry, one of the crewmembers when she noticed. The boarding plank was put into place. "Now this is the way to disembark a ship." she continued.

When one of the uncloaked people was halfway the plank, he explained the behavior of his friend.

"You must forgive her; she's always a bit edgy after traveling by ship." his calm voice said, "Something to do with extreme heights.. I can't say for the others."

He left after Cherry said she understood. The crew started to unload cargo as soon as the last passenger had departed the station. In all, at least two dozen strong adventurers must have agreed to go to Sherania.

Once the adventurers had all arrived in Perion and gathered by Dances With Balrog, he briefed them. It was quite different from the briefing he gave during the Christmas days.

"Between the writing of the situation and the coming of all of you, the situation has changed." he started.

"For starters, the odd weather in El Nath has returned to normal, as there is now a thick layer of snow again."

This new caused several people started to mumbling.

"Then why are we here then?" shouted one of the warriors. He was in full Dragon armor, including the helmet, but strangely, there wasn't a scratch on it.

More mumbling occurred, but Dances continued.

"I am here to update you on the situation and to explain the new goals of your coming, Drake." he said. "But I see your behavior towards me hasn't improved much."

Dances continued to explain the situation, starting with the situation around the barrier.

"It's been updated since it was raised, so the Crystal earrings will once again be necessary. Though the design has changed a little to suit more people. They are now clip-ons, rather than replacements, so any enhancements on your current jewels will still be in effect."

Loud cheering was the direct result, as many people were now able to keep their powerful earrings on.

"However, they still need to be attached to the ear."

The cheering noise lowered, because people's expectations were not lived up.

"But on to more important issues, ahem. The castle ruins have been restored by our enemy to their original state, meaning that the maps you had drawn yourselves from extensive exploration may no longer be accurate. Therefor, your first objective is to find the throne hall. Any traps, locks, seals or tasks must be taken care of before facing your enemy, so it will not be a clean enter-exit mission."

"Your second task is to find and destroy Ergoth. His location, actions and plans are unknown as there have been no reports on him for the past three weeks. Your last task is to report every finding back to me. I want to know the situation, the state of the castle, the state you found and left Ergoth and the actions you had to take before facing him. Furthermore, I want a list of creatures he is able to control."

Dances waited for the adventurers to calm down.

"Now get your rest, your team leaders will be responsible for fresh and able fighting forces for tomorrow."

The night fell as final preparations were made. The camp that had been set up at the bottom of Perion was only lit by the remains of the warm fire. But there was still a shadow moving through the city, slowly making its way to the top and entering the chief's house.

"Ahh, you've arrived." Dances said from his seat.

The fires in his home were lit and cast a light on the shadow that had entered. Three faces were made visible, two male and one female.

"I guess we've been expected, eh?" said the priest among the three. "That's something we should have expected ourselves. Oh well. Let's just get this over with and be on our way."

The female stepped forward and removed her hood, showing her black hair and allowing light to shine directly into her brown eyes. Eyes that revealed a determined look and a face to match it.

She said nothing; she stared at Dances With Balrog with that determined expression.

"I see you've brought your friend along, Iucounu." the chief eventually said. "Grendell is eager t' know what your experiences are with that badge he gave you."

The girl looked behind her and saw that the priest removed his hood as well, revealing his grey eyes and short white hair. The look in his eyes hid a large part of him, while also showing an easy character.

"Oh, that. Yeah, well, it's been great y'know. He outta-" Iucounu answered before being interrupted by the chief.

"I'm not asking you to tell me, I'm simply telling you Grendell is curious. Oh, and Fury, you know my answer. Have you learned nothing about me during your visits here?"

The third person had removed his hood, showing his chaotic hair and deep blue eyes.

"And haven't you learned anything of my visits here?" he said. "Or have you been ignoring certain aspects?"

"You know enough to know my answer to your question. So be off and tell the others what I've told you." Dances replied to the fellow.

"Fine.. but don't expect me coming again anytime soon." Fury said as he turned around and signaled the priest and the bandit to come with him.

Once outside and a fair distance away, Lokima couldn't keep it to herself anymore and asked Fury what all that just now was about.

"Past, present and future." the crusader simply responded. "But that's really all you need to know."

"O..kay.. whatever. So why again didn't we ask if we could join that bunch of other people?"

"Quite simple, actually. He thinks we'll be fine." Fury said.

The priest agreed, adding his findings to it.

"You and Loki went in before and got us out the dungeon. Then we faced Count Bony and were able to get out afterwards. The three of us ain't exactly the least experienced in battle, so, should we really want to enter again, who is he to stop us? Not too far off, right?"

He smiled, but did not get that smile returned.

"For such a naive person, you're pretty sharp. Why the show?" asked Fury.

"Ghehe, past, present and future.. past, present and future." Iucounu answered, giggling a bit.

"Bah, shoulda known you would pull a trick like this."


	26. Storm The Gate

Everyone was present the next morning, all donning the purple protecting earrings. Lokima, Iucounu and Fury had been accepted by the others, but not without fight. This was mainly because some people were too proud to let anyone who had not fulfilled their tasks in their groups. So the trio was seen as a failure, rather than people who wanted to help. Only one group leader didn't have such problems. It was the same guy who had explained his teammate's actions to the Ellinia Station crewmember.

Although the rest of his group had no objections, most of them didn't really care. The three of them really have such different personalities, it is hard to fit them in a single group.

By the time the sun was long risen and the temperature had reached a rock-heating level, the groups were close to the stone gateway. The wall may have been 'restored to previous glory', it still looked quite old and it gave the thought that it might give way any moment.

Once passed through the gate, the groups stood before an inner wall, with it's gate locked. There didn't seem a way to climb up, despite the many statues near the top. Almost all the statues were the same, having only four different designs. One was a cloaked and hooded angel, holding a sword straight down from the chest. One was some sort of demon's head with two large horns and two short spiky ones. The ugliest was a gargoyle with only one and a half horn and a head that was too large for its body. The last, but the only one that seemed to be the only one of that particular design was a winged lion. It was also the statue placed directly above the blocked gateway. When Fury looked at it, he saw it turn its head and looking back at him.

"Eh?" he said surprised, raised an eyebrow and looked at it again to make sure his eyes weren't playing tricks on him.

"No entry to trespassers!" it echoed between the two walls. Fury was slightly prepared for activity from the stone statue, so he didn't look around to find the source. The other people did look around frantically.

"Up there! The lion on the gate!" shouted Fury and pointed at the statue.

"I am.. the gatekeeper. And you.. are trespassing." it said with a deep tone.

"'Scuse us then, but we're here for exploration purposes." said one of the team leaders. She was an ice mage, dressed in a blue dress with golden linings. The section below was white and held some sort of symbol. It was one of the latest designs and techniques, making it something that was known as a Timeless Myst. A very complex method with very rare components was required to be able to make such a dress. It required a Rock of Time to give it unique enchantments.

"No entry to trespassers!" it said again.

"Obviously, it's bound to be destroyed." said a paladin as he threw his hammer towards the lion. He pulled it back using the chain attached to it.

"Your time is limited here." said the fallen lion's head before getting smashed by the crushing blow of the paladin's hammer.

Once that was said, all the other statues began to awaken and one by one came flying towards the adventurers.

"RAAIID!" shouted the paladin to the others, who had already prepared for battle.

Amongst the many wands and staves, swords and hammers, spears and halberds, daggers and knives, all sorts of damage was dealt to the attacking stone. From elemental spells to powerful blows, from stabs to pounding strikes, every type of attack you could think of, it was used. It may not have been surprising that these enemies were completely out of their league. Fury understood why these people did not want his small group to join: they were much, much stronger.

_So this is the strength that I could have one day.._ he thought.

"We should move on. Dennis, see if that door'll open. I heard a sound coming from it when the lion broke." said the paladin. But the door still didn't budge.

"Lemme try, Richard." a mage stepped forward as the Dark Knight moved away.

The mage set the wooden gate on fire, but there wasn't any heat coming from it. Despite that, the wood did burn and soon the whole gate was gone, leaving only some scrap metal and an entry through.

"Maybe not the best way to enter, but heck, it ain't a friend's door!" she said as she turned around. "Entrer!"

The door that lead them into the castle itself was not locked, sealed or in any way barred, so the group entered the hall beyond it. A short exploration later revealed the layout of the rooms and the floors.

"Okay guys, there's three floors in all, the first two have a single door and the top has two." said Richard, the paladin who lead the group that had Fury's trio in it.

"The door on the bottom floor is locked, so we need a key for it. The seal at the end of this floor can't be broken using anything we know of, so we also need to find a way to break it." he continued. "I think the things we need are in these rooms, so let's each take our group to a floor and clear out the rooms. Fury, Lokima and Iucnounu will join us to the top floor. Izzy, I'd like you to take this floor and Sweds, your group can take care of the second floor."

While each group went into different rooms and had different tasks, they all found the same things. Izzy's group had entered a large room with four towers, each path leading to the top of the tower was broken, but not untreadable. Only one tower was completely empty. Her team managed to get to the three tops and found long red curvy spears and brought them along to the main hall again.

Sweds' team, on the other hand found a long hallway filled with walking stone monsters wearing belts. Once these were dealt with, he found a golden key. Thinking he had found the key that opened the other door at the top floor, he went there and found he was correct. Eager to continue, his team entered. They found it was a hallway with the same stone monsters. Only, these regenerated immensely quick, so the team looked further and found a staircase going down. The sewage water here was too foul to even touch. Jaques, the fire mage of Sweds' team, noticed a statue at the other end and teleported there. He found out the remains of Patrick and a box holding a key. Bringing back the key, he gave it to the bandit. She used her dark sight to maneuver through the stone monsters and found a door. Behind this door was another red spear.

Richard's group had found a similar room to Izzy's team, but there were five towers, again only one empty. The paths to the other four towers were broken, and even enchanted. Only an empty altar was on each top. Richard knew something had to be placed there and waited for the other teams to return. He stepped outside and found that Sweds had called Izzy and her team to come to the top floor. They carried four spears in all, just like the four altars on the top of his room. It took not long before the teams decided to place the spears on the altars.

As the last spear turned into a green rough gem with shining bright wings, a shudder went through the ground. Nobody got hurt as everyone had found a stable hold of the ground.

"I think we found out how to break the seal. Let's head out and further into the castle." said Izzy. "This is getting too crazy, even for an undead Count.

Just as Izzy had expected, the large lightblue seal had vanished. No longer did it hold the door behind it closed and so the adventure continued deeper.

_This is going too easy.._ thought Lokima. _What happened with the tight security? Where is that Ergoth?_

She kept going nonetheless.


	27. Games

What this spacious chamber held must have been the strangest of blocking methods. There was a fountain in the center, two balconies at each end and a chandelier above the fountain. Below the balcony on the far end of the room, the same magic was at work, sealing further passage. A stone lion once again sat on the edge at the front of the waters.

"Two ingredients, two items, four each, one combination." it said cryptically. "Fail once, prepare, fail often, change idea."

At the same time, several wraiths appeared at each end of the chamber and rushed in to attack the members standing nearest to them. Of course, the same happened with them as with the gargoyles at the inner gate. When each wraith vanished, it transformed into one of four badges or into one of four scrolls.

"I think these are the 'two items, four each' of the riddle." said Richard as he examined a badge.

"There are markings on the base of this fountain!" noticed Jaques as he looked closer.

The markings depicted four different things and some strange language. Two icons looked exactly like the badges and scrolls the wraiths had become. The other two icons looked like a scale of buns and a bottle of liquid.

"Look up in the rooms of the balconies. There must be another clue there!" ordered Izzy to her team as she went there herself too.

In one balcony room, Izzy's team found the scales, but the buns were all rotten and stinking a lot as well. The other room held whiskey bottles, some were dated 700 years earlier!

The teams laid one of each ingredient in front of the lion and waited for it to react to the new situation.

The head looked at the four 'ingredients' from left to right and declared that "The combination 700 year old Jr. Necki whiskey, hot buns, badge of courage, wisdom scroll has two correctly placed items and one incorrectly placed item."

Once the lion silenced, the four items on the ground transformed back into wraiths and once again started attacking.

"Useless." mumbled one of the assassins of Richard's team as she sliced through two of them at the same time.

The other two wraiths were just as chanceless and returned to being an item. Richard pondered what this could mean, while Iucounu wrote down the combination and the findings of the lion. After everyone had discussed what possible solution to this strange game could be.

Eventually, Iucounu came to the conclusion.

"It's a game. A puzzle with a secret code that we have to find. It's a very ancient game, dating back almost a thousand years. If I recall correctly, it was called 'Meistermind'. The rules are quite simple.."

One explanation later, the group was convinced this had to be the case.

"So.. you can solve this puzzle?" asked Sweds. He was quite astounded to find out someone actually had this kind of knowledge.

"Each time I try a combination, the items will transform into wraiths, so it's best to be prepared." the priest said as he looked at his notes. "After too many tries, I think all the items will attack us."

"One item is not used, because there was only comment on three items, rather than four. So I'm going to switch the food for a scroll and see if I can get comment on four items.

"The combination has two correct and one incorrectly placed items." said the lion. Again, the items transformed, attacked, were defeated and transformed back.

"Hmm.." said the priest as he noted the results.

He replaced the scroll with a badge. The results were different this time, because the lion found that two items were still correct, but that two items were placed incorrectly.

"Ah! Now we know from which items the combination is built. So all that is left now is to shuffle them and compare results." Iucounu declared. "I just hope that there are a couple of tries left before all the items transform and we have to start all over."

He looked at his notes again, and wanted to know which items were placed correctly. Three items hadn't been changed, so he switched two around.

"Whiskey, badge, badge and scroll.. let's see." he said as he placed the items in front of the fountain's lion.

This time, none of the items was correctly placed.

"What're you doing?! They're ALL wrong now!" shouted Drake.

"This is good news, warrior," started Iucounu, "because now I know that the first two items weren't placed right and the last two were placed right in the previous combination."

He picked up and placed four items in the order badge, whiskey, badge, scroll.

"The combination is has four correctly placed items. Congratulations." said the lion as it's head cracked. Seconds later, the entire statue broke apart and only rubble was left.

The magic seal had broken and the door was opened.

Lokima, the first to go through, was scared abnormally by a spirit. She even jumped a bit into the air and took steps back to get a look from a distance.

"Oh, sorry.. I didn't mean to scare you.. I uhmm. Are you okay?" he said. "It's not every century that I get to speak to people. Not since that Ergoth conquered my beautiful castle."

Fury's attitude changed once the thought that this person could be an ally and help them.

"We're on our way to destroy the same Ergoth you speak of. He has been roaming this castle again." he started.

The spirit explained his situation.

"My name is, or was, Sharen the Third. I was king of this country until Ergoth conquered my castle with his diabolic magic. He betrayed me, having secretly experimented with living stone, he planned to take over and use his people, my people for his experiments. I have been roaming this castle ever since he murdered me. Ergoth has placed a cruel fate on me by separating my belongings so I cannot pass on beyond the grave. Find my belongings and I shall break the seal that stands between you and him. Find them, and I will aid you."

He vanished through the floor.

"Well, that was awkward.." said Fury. "We never met him the last time we were here. In fact, a lot has changed since our last venture in this castle."

With the spirit gone, the group focused on exploration again. This time they were in an pitch dark sewage hall, as plenty of very large drains were coming from the walls. Only four were actually accessible. the rest was either sealed, barred, a dead end, or had collapsed. The group split up with each their respective team leaders up front.

The first drain led to a room with small, flying golems. They were held up in the air by a tiny black demon and strings. Once all nine were defeated, Izzy's group picked up the remaining stone plates. It were stone skulls on a stone plaque and all nine fitted in the space above the door on the other end. It opened and revealed a wooden box with some fabric in it.

"Pants? Is this his belonging?" Izzy said as she turned around.

Richard's team, along with Fury's trio entered the second passable drain and entered an area with dozens of floating stepstones, suspended at lethal height. They were roughly grouped in three layers.

"I'll do this." sighed one of the members. She leaped up the stairs leading to the tiles and with high agility jumped from stone to stone. Within minutes had she reached the other end and entered the stairs.

"That's Karin.. she may hate the heights on the boat rides, but she's the absolute best in these kinds of things. So long she can see the bottom, that is, haha!" said Richard to Fury.

Moments later, Karin popped up at a balcony one floor higher and started to cross the second layer of stepping stones. When she had finally reached the end of the third layer, she opened a wooden box after picking the lock, took out some leathery remains and came down again.

"This was in a box at the top." she said as she showed a pair of shoes.

The third entry had a strange field enchantment, because when Sweds entered, he felt much weaker than his usual self. He ordered nobody else to enter as he didn't want anyone else to get affected. As soon as he had said that, tons and tons of blue slimes leaked out the ceiling, the floor and the walls. They weren't ordinary blue slimes, because Sweds saw they had black starry tattoos.

"Devil slimes.." he mumbled and readied for battle. "I feel as weak as before I became an ice mage. I bet this field disables advanced techniques."

As he tried to chain lightning together, he found out nothing happened.

"Bah.. back to clawing them all then!"

When Richard's group was finished in their designated entry, they moved on to the fourth.

Inside were only gargoyles, required to destroy for stone skulls. These fitted nicely in the space above the door across the room and upon entry, Karin had a job to do again. This time she brought back a crown.

The three groups gathered at the far end of the room. Sweds felt better after leaving the Devil slimes' room, where he had found a long cape-like coat.

Richard noticed they hadn't found the seal yet.

"Sharen specifically mentioned a seal. The only route we haven't tried out, is the last drain in the room where Karin found the crown. We should go there and see what is beyond that point." his plan was.

Once that point was reached, Richard went in up front, followed by the rest of his group, then Fury, Lokima and Iucounu, then Izzy and her bunch and finally Sweds' team.

They entered a small hallway with a tiny grave at the end, marked by a skull. the seal was at the very side of it, barring the large stone door.

"This is the door we saw Ergoth last time!" said Fury. "I'm sure of it! Get ready for a big battle after this."

Sharen's spirit came floating from the little grave and was very pleased, or rather very excited to see his clothes again.

"Please, place them on my grave, so I can finally move on. I will be ever grateful to you, be ware of Ergoth's powers over stone."

He made strange stances and the seal shattered.

"Farewell and godspeed."

He became opaque and eventually completely invisible. His soul was returned.

"Now.. this Count Ergoth get's to meet our bunch." said Izzy. "He'll be in pain, if corpses can still feel that, hahahaa!" and she pushed the doors open.


	28. Crystal Ergoth

With an eerie creaking sound, the doors opened. A loud bang indicated they had reached their fully open state. Once the echo faded, only silence took its place.

"No ambush? No enemy flooding? Nothing happens?" said Izzy in astonishment. "I think he's not home, haha! Fury, you liar, there's noone here." She stepped inside and had a look around.

The hall was just as Fury remembered it. Walls covered in blue and gold carpets, each with Ergoth's family weapon. The candles in the cavities in the walls between the carpets were already lit and so was the chandelier on the ceiling. The entire floor had a long red carpet going from the entrance all the way to the other end of the room, ending at the throne. The stone statues of the lions and the knights had reformed themselves.

The place where Ergoth once stood was now empty, and the only thing laying on the throne was a big red crystal.

"Strange things happened here." said Lokima as she explained to the others what had occurred during their last meeting. "Ergoth stood here" and she moved towards the throne, "and he had brought these four statues to life when the battle started." and pointed at the two knights and the two lions.

"We defeated those things.. they were destroyed and now they're back in one piece!" continued Lokima.

"Also, this ruby or crystal of some sort was not present on the throne." said Fury. "It was mounted on the staff he wields."

"Could it be the source of his power?" pondered Iucounu. "In that case, I hope he doesn't mind us taking it away. He'll be powerless and we'll have one problem less! Not to forget that the true goal of this mission is to remove the threat Ergoth. If he has no power source, he will be no threat."

Richard gave Iucounu an approving pat on the shoulder.

"I like you! Rather than heading into confrontation, we'd peacefully resolve the issue." he said. "Grendell would approve of such a plan."

Izzy agreed, as this whole ordeal is too weird to be worth of any fight.

"I mean, come on! The traps and these strange games he's placed all over this castle.. it's like he's toying with us." she said, convincing more people to want to get out as soon as possible.

"Okay, then it's settled then. We'll take the crystal and high-tail outta here." said Sweds. He walked to the throne and put his hands around the crystal, but didn't lift it.

"Uhh.." he said as he let go of it. "Guys, it's weighting quite a bit more than expected."

Izzy dashed towards Sweds while naming him a weak excuse for a man and put her hands around the crystal. But she too could not lift it up.

"Sweds.. please say things more accurately. Don't say it weights more than expected, but say it weight a TON! This thing feels as if it is held onto its place by more means than simple gravity. This crystal is magically bound to this throne." she said and gave Sweds a weak punch on the shoulder.

"Oh heck. So there's _no way_ of moving it away from here?" asked another paladin with a strong tone. He had his Golden Lion hammer readied.

"What are you up to, Josh?" said Richard with a raised eyebrow. He looked concerned at the hammer, as if he was afraid of that what was going to happen. "Are you implying to destroy the crystal?"

"That's _exactly_ what I'm saying, Richard. It's the next best thing to removal." Josh said as he raised his hammer. It started to glow brightly and light came from below Josh as well.

"Any objections should be made now." said Josh as he moved around slowly with a hammer that was glowing with brilliance. Nobody objected.

"Here goes!" and Josh smashed the hammer straight on top of the crystal.

Upon impact, the crystal cracked, broke in several pieces and shattered by the sheer force of the hammer's attack. It exploded with such force, that the hammer was sent back along with its wielder and started to expel large amounts of smoke. Josh did not expect such an event and was not able to coordinate his landing, resulting in a minor injury to the rear.

The smoke was engulfing the throne as the group took a fair distance to observe the consequences of their decision. In the core of the smoke, a shadow formed, growing in size with time. Then, as if regulated by something, the smoke retreated itself. It flowed upwards, about seven feet high and into somewhere, because it vanished into nothing. When the smoke had cleared enough and the steps to the throne became visible again, three people in the room saw something very, very familiar. Nearly flawless in timing, Lokima, Fury and Iucounu shouted it's name.

"ERGOTH!"

The Smoke cleared completely, revealing that the crystal was absorbing it. The same crystal that had been laying on the throne and had been shattered by Josh's hammer was now once again mounted onto the staff of Ergoth.

"Hmm.." he said while faced with his back to the three teams. "That was quite unexpected magic she used. How could I have not noticed her potential?"

For several seconds he pondered on, giving several key pieces of information away about his whereabouts during the past weeks.

"She must not have been trying to destroy me, but rather imprison me. I can still feel the ties she made, so these must be severed before I continue my work." he said to himself while observing the staff in his right hand. "But.. what released me from that prison?"

He looked around in front of him. Seeing nobody there, he turned around and finally noticed he had visitors.

"Ahh, familiar faces amongst new flesh." he said as he looked at the trio that recognized him earlier. "How _nice_ of you to visit me after our previous encounter. I will not let you escape this conflict once again!"

Ergoth shouted strange words, sounding hollow and echoing through the throne-room. The lion statues once again took on defensive positions, while the knights took on the offensive.

Battle ensued shortly after, but it was completely different from the time when Fury fought.

It seemed as if the statues were different in their attacks, Ergoth himself was different too, as he was no longer capable of dodging all the arrows fired at him. Within minutes, one of the knight's small leg cracked. The following crushing blow from Josh's hammer broke the entire stone section, making the knight collapse and crumble.

Not long after the knight had fallen, Ergoth had activated a trap as the red carpet started glowing and expelling a serious electric charge. The unfortunate people who could not have evaded the discharge were struck and cried out in pain. After the energy flow stopped, they fell to the ground and stayed were temporarily unable to move. For the time being, their fellow teammates dragged them away from Ergoth, towards the door end of the room.

Others took the liberty of weakening Ergoth by means of putting fire to his clothes and putting bomb arrows through his chest. At first, it didn't seem to work very well, as the fires were out before they could really do serious damage and the broken bones reattached themselves without much of a delay. Fury started thinking it may end the same way as last time, with them running away from Ergoth's immortality.

One thing bugged Iucounu as he was firing holy magic after holy magic, is that he was _able_ to use holy magic. He knew that, back in the dungeon, Phil had also noticed that holy magic severely failed. Enomis told him that she was also incapable of using holy magic when they were advancing through last time.

_Something has changed here. Why was Ergoth imprisoned in the first place? _he thought._ Just WHO was that Tsuki girl, it has got to have been her.. but how did she get Ergoth imprisoned in that crystal?_


	29. Time Is Limited

Twenty minutes had passed since the first attack was launched. Twenty minutes since Josh had broken the crystal. Yet immensely more had been dome in that short time span than the long and tedious battle Fury fought when he lead his group to Ergoth one month ago. In these short minutes, the teams of Richard, Izzy and Sweds had obliterated the two lions protecting Ergoth and had broken the two knights attacking them. Losses on their side were only minimal, because the injured people were taken out of the field of battle and were treated quickly.

"This fight has gone completely different compared to the fight we had, Lokima!" said Fury as another Balrog Orb exploded in mid-air behind them. She agreed while adding more holes to her enemy's red-and-gold cape.

The regeneration speed of Ergoth had, like before, gotten slower. He was weakening considerably faster now.

At one point during the fight, when Drake cut off Ergoth's left hand, it didn't come back anymore! And when this was noticed, Ergoth became slightly more desperate and the teamleaders slightly more aggressive. They knew that the enemy had weakened. They knew that this was going to end in their favor. The wanted to know what would happen if blades and hammers completely obliterated this skeleton.

"Josh! Get back and charge up your hammer with holy powers, then charge up Heaven's Hammer!" ordered Sweds. Richard understood his tactics immediately and followed Josh's example. He too charged up these attacks and waited for the perfect moment to strike.

Suddenly, Ergoth decided to make use of mass-summoning spells, letting dozens and dozens of little stone gargoyles attack the groups.

An enormous switch in battle tactics was made without even a single hint from the teamleaders, as Iucounu noticed that the members were no longer using single target attacks. He saw that the bowmaster immediately took a couple of jumps backwards and started firing a hail of arrows. He also saw that Richard almost perfectly smashed his attack into the nearest gargoyle and, because he had charged his blade with Heaven's Sword, at least nine more gargoyles were caught in the blast. Elemental mages started chain lightning, fireballs and explosive attacks immediately, destroying as many as four beasts with each blasts. This battle could have turned from near victory to overwhelming odds, but because these far superior adventurers were present and had massive amounts of experience, it was as if Ergoth had only built up a weak defense, rather than a strong offense.

_This is mind bogglingly fast!_ the priest thought as he Doomed half a dozen gargoyles, reducing them to snails. Mere seconds later, they were shattered by the barrage of attacks.

Then, in the middle of the summons, Iucounu saw that Josh still hadn't released his charged up hammer.

_How on earth are they capable of diverting every attack from that person?!_ he thought. _Those people are simply far too experienced. If we had this kind of capabilities last month, it would definitely have turned out in a better way!_

But that was not all that was happening: Josh was actually making progress by slowly walking towards the steps leading to Ergoth. Shielded by his teammates, he was brought up close and finally released his attack when Sweds ordered him. Mere moments between the giving of the order and the blast, all gargoyles that were obstructing Josh's view of Ergoth were held off. The paladin's full devastating powers made contact with Ergoth's chest area, blasting him to large chunks of skeleton.

The crystal on the staff once again broke free from the staff and floated mid-air. Everyone took a safe place, preferably towards the door. In seconds, the skeleton that called himself Ergoth was reassembled, but not free to move. Red light, coming from the crystal, began beaming out the center of the crystal and was aimed straight at Ergoth. It was the weirdest thing anyone had seen in their lives: The crystal flew towards the ground where Ergoth was and let its light beam up straight. The beam widened its angle and, when it engulfed Ergoth completely, the crystal enlarged itself, opened up from above and Ergoth was put in the center. Then, the crystal shrunk and shrunk, taking whatever was inside along the process. Within seconds, the room was the same as when the group had entered. The exception were the four statues, as they were still shattered and broken.

"Does anyone understand what the hell we just saw?" mumbled Izzy. She was the first one to come to her senses.

"I'm completely baffled, Iz." said Sweds as he shook his head. Nobody understood what had happened to Ergoth.

"Richard?" asked Fury, but he was just as clueless as the rest.

"The best I can think of, is that whatever caused him to be imprisoned there in the first place, had put ties to his power. When we weakened him enough, the ties won it from him and engulfed him once again." said Iucounu. "But this is just a guess. We could try again by breaking the crystal, haha!"

"I'm not sure what you meant by 'trying again', so I'll leave it at that. Let's report back and declare this threat removed." said Lokima. "I feel like having a party now!"

Everyone laughed at the carefree behavior of certain people, but in their hearts agreed to some partying.

The stone doors were opened again and the people were greeted by the brightest of lights. When their eyes had accustomed to the shining rays, everyone noticed the same thing.

They stood outside the castle's outer walls.

Fury looked back at the doors, but there was only the castle gate. He noticed that the statues they had broken when they had entered were restored. _That's weird._ he thought, but then another thing came through his mind.

"Time is limited huh?" he mumbled to himself.

Iucounu's hand then landed on his shoulder, slightly shocking the warrior. "What was that you were mumbling?" he asked kindly.

"Oh, nothing much.. just talking to myself here, haha." he replied.

Lokima budged in between the two, grabbing Iucounu's arm. "Less talking, more walking. I wanna partyyy!"


End file.
